


Tenets of Life

by HorseTechie



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Coping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hiro can't help himself...she's hot, Never Giving Up, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Rebuilding baymax, Self-Reflection, Starting Over, Tadashi's Journals, alternate ending au, inadvertent underage flirting, just fluff and angst though, the five tenets of taekwondo (and of life)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 01:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8823754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorseTechie/pseuds/HorseTechie
Summary: A continuation of the movie to fill in more of the events as seen in the closing scenes. More insight provided as to how Hiro recovers/rebuilds Baymax, and with the help of his new friends, figures out where to pick up where Tadashi left off. Also builds on relationships between the Nerd Lab.





	1. Courtesy

**Author's Note:**

> Orginally posted on Fanction.net, on January 1, 2015.
> 
> Before 2015, I had not written any fanfic since being in with the Transformers in 2008. Life happened, and family became more important. Then after I saw Big Hero 6... it got to me. So in the time frame of two days off from work during the New Year's break, I started work on this fic. A way to fill in some of the blanks that bugged me at the end of this movie. No one else seemed to hit on them at the time, so I did! Of course, many things have been altered just to make it all fit better too. 
> 
> I personally found this Disney movie appealing because I also loved the unique way the main characters were portrayed. I was greatly intrigued by the fact that Hiro and Tadashi were biracial. My kids are also biracial, myself being American and their Dad being South Korean. I also had studied Japanese back in college, then later took some classes in Health Informatics. The idea of a robot like Baymax being introduced into the healthcare system sounded simply awesome! And as a student and instructor of Tae Kwon Do, I also know that martial arts are very good for the body and soul! ;D

_"First, Understand Yourself…"_

The series of events that followed after ….. came as a blur. Even though the original plan was to make a break for it before the authorities arrived, Hiro's super hero team felt bad just leaving Abigail Callaghan for the paramedics to find. Hiro volunteered to stay behind with her since he had been the one to make the big save. What more could really happen? Famous last words.

Hiro's emotions were still in conflict with everything that had happened thereafter. Much to his surprise, the cops now were all over this incident like flies. Must have been something to do with a giant portal sucking up an entire building that got their attention. Now he sat by himself in the back of a cruiser, waiting for an officer to notify Aunt Cass about what had happened. The officer wanted to take him back to the police department for questioning. The others in his group promised to keep in touch with their comm link to let him know what was going on, until he told them to stop before the cops noticed. Honey Lemon did reassure him that they will try to also call Aunt Cass and talk to her about this. At least this time there were no handcuffs.

After more time had passed, the officer finally decided to take Hiro back to the police station to wait for Aunt Cass to come in. He explained to the boy that since the traffic around Krei's building was so congested, she was advised to come to the station instead.

His aunt had come into the reception area, looking very much flustered. She at least restrained herself from making a big scene about what happened, which was expected. Hiro never really explained to her about how he and the others were moonlighting as superheroes. They were first taken to a security clearance area with a stern, older woman in a prim police uniform. The guard stepped out from behind the counter, but paused a moment before speaking.

"To ensure the safety of everyone, please remove your armor," She spoke to Hiro. Her voice was deep and rough, showing no emotion. But after giving him another good look, she decidedly added an additional clause. "And, anything else you may have on your person that would be considered threatening." She set a cardboard case box on the floor next to Hiro, indicating that his blue, battle damaged armor should go in there.

"I am going to get it back, right?" Hiro reluctantly placed his helmet in a square cardboard box. Part of him was thankful he also wore some tight-fitting compression clothing on underneath it all, otherwise this would have been even more awkward. He wanted to take it off back at the site, but the cops were there before he could stash it.

The gruff woman did not respond. She just looked at him in a manner that implied that no exceptions are allowed.

"Take it off," his aunt told him under her breath. "I will ask for it."

The young teen returned the guard's look with his own contemptuous gaze as he dropped his gloves in the box.

Once cleared, a more friendly looking officer guided them to a small sparsely decorated office with a desk, and a couple of chairs on each side. After they sat down, the officer set a form in front of Aunt Cass. "As his legal guardian, we need your permission before conducting this interview."

"Oh, yes.. of course..." she looked at the form, and Hiro could only imagine what could be going through her head. "What will the interview be about?"

"The events involving the use of Hiro's microbots during the most recent incident with Krei Tech," the officer responded. "Just to clarify ownership."

 _Oh man..._  Hiro had kind of forgotten about that report he tried to make a few days ago. He noticed Aunt Cass looking back at him with even more concern.

"Well... I'm sure he can  _explain,"_  Aunt Cass signed and dated on the line. 

"Do you also want to be present during the interview?" the young man picked up the form."Due to the nature of this interview, your presence is not required as long as we have your permission."

Hiro's mood sank a little more as he feared she would say yes. She looked at him, her dissaproval evident, and he sat up. "It's okay, Aunt Cass. I can handle this."

"I don't know," she was still considering the options.

Hiro continued to look at her, pleading silently.

"All right. But you are required to tell me afterwards what it was about, okay young man?" She always fell for that.

"Yes, ma'am," he held his solemn expression.

"Very well then. Come with me, Ma'am," the officer escorted her from the room.

The tired boy slouched down into the chair and rested his head on a propped hand. He hoped this would not take long. It had been a long day already. He stared at the wall in front of him, then glanced around at the corners and ceiling. There are always cameras in these rooms, and his curious mind wanted to know exactly where. But more importantly, just what where they going to interrogate him about in regards to the microbots? Clearly there was something more about Callaghan's motives if they had to bring him here too.

Hiro sighed angrily, dropping his head between his hands. It still made no sense how a man everyone held with such high regard could do such things! Hiro had trusted him with everything he worked so hard on to develop. How could this have gone so wrong?

The door had suddenly opened. The abrupt noise caused Hiro to sit more upright again. A spiffy officer in a dark suitcoat sat across from him with binder in hand. Well, almost spiffy. The man wore no tie now, and he had noticeable stubble on his face.

Hiro just looked at him with a look mixed with concern and curiosity.

"Don't worry, this is just a routine investigation in behalf of this.. microbot case." The man looked down at some noted in the folder he had, then closed it. "Hiro Hamada… yes, you do know what I am talking about?"

The boy nodded slowly. However, at this point he wondered what was safe for him to say. This may only be his second time with the police, but he heard enough about how these interviews can go downhill quickly.

Then a baggie appeared on the table with one of his inactivated microbots. "This was yours, yes?"

"Yes." Hiro answered softly. This much he really could not deny, since the earlier incident when he tried to report them stolen.

"Were… _all_ of them yours?" The man leaned closer.

"Who are you?" Hiro tried to turn the tables a little.

"Just a detective on the case."

"Which case?" Hiro raised an eyebrow. That did make a big difference to him.

"The one involving these, and the mess they made of the Silicone Chip District, of course." The detective sounded matter of factly.

Hiro stared at him for a moment. Of course, this had to do with the destruction of Krei's building, but he knew the person behind this was originally presumed dead after the explosion of the convention center at SFIT. Interestingly enough, there was no questioning of this caliber about how the explosion occurred after that accident over a month ago.

"What was your purpose for these microbots when you created them?" The detective made an effort to steer this conversation back on track.

This was a question that at the moment seemed unfair. Very unfair. "How is that going to help prove I did not help Yokai?"

"From as far as I can tell, you have a history of illegal robot fights. So we need to find out what your intentions were." The man looked Hiro square in the eye. The way The boy kept avoiding his questions was starting to irritate the officer.

Hiro looked down from his pressuring gaze. Of all the questions, why this one. The invention that was his key to greatness, a door to his future at SFIT, was now his biggest let-down. His biggest regret was failing to consider safeguards to prevent his microbots from falling into the wrong hands. If there was one thing he admired about Baymax's programming, it was how well Tadashi configured the robot's artificial intelligence.

Hiro fidgeted with his hands, drawing in a breath before replying, "It was an invention that I wanted to impress Professor Callaghan with, so I could be accepted into his IT school. And… it worked. He loved my idea."

"Yes. Yes…" the detective made a few quick notes. "So are you saying you gave the invention to Professor Callaghan? Did they become the property of San Fransokyo's IT department?"

There was that exchange where Callaghan stopped him from selling them, but no, he was not certain now if he agreed to that. He only left them there because there were so many to move around. Regardless, the very thought of Callaghan stealing them and hurting others in the process, angered him. "So you are confirming that they were stolen.. from me? Yes!" Hiro looked at the detective, then added with more sincerity, "They were supposed to help a lot of people… too."

"Again, you had no malicious intent when you created these microbots." The question came up again.

"No. Never!" And however many times that man will ask, Hiro wasn't going to admit to him that he had not taken the time to include a fail-safe. Or more like, he ran out of time. That was something he decided could be added later, because really, it just didn't seem that important at the time.

"What I am trying to understand, Hiro, is how Professor Callaghan stole these, when it appeared that you had left them for him." The detective leveled with him.

"How he stole them is that he went and made more. Lots more! I didn't give him the plans. And then he started chasing after me with them, with the intent to kill!" Hiro stood up, looking at the door. "Do you have someone talking to Callaghan too here? You have to. 'Cause he just told me that he used my microbots to survive the fiery explosions in the convention hall! He took them to save ONLY himself!"

They looked eye to eye for a second in silence. The detective nodded once, looking down to his notes. "Sit down, please."

Hiro hoped he finally made himself clear. "Just make sure you ask him about that." He sat down, reluctantly. "Are you done yet?"

"No," the man checked another page. "Your balloon robot... Was he another one of your battle bots?"

Hiro sat back in the chair, and then shook his head. "No. No, not really. My brother created him," he hesitated for a beat before continuing more quietly, "Then he left him to me. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"This is based off your history we have on you, son, about how-"

"Look, I upgraded Baymax because I wanted him to be able to protect us from the microbots! I wasn't using him, he wanted to help me look for... find who took my invention. But, his primary directive was to provide healthcare. He could not, would not hurt any-" Hiro had to stop and retrace his thoughts mid-sentence. The teen finally came full circle about understanding the one thing that made him no different from Callaghan. Both of them took and used benign inventions with the intent to harm and destroy others.

"Did you have anything more to say?" He noticed Hiro's abrupt hesitation.

The boy's anger was slowly being replaced with defeat now. He crossed his arms and slumped back, then shook his head no. He said too much at this point.

"Hmm, well, I do want to ask one more thing. There are no more of these?" He held up the bag with the one microbot.

"I don't have any more. You'll have to ask Callaghan about what he had." He looked down, fidgeting again. All this talk about things that reminded him about the disaster really did not help.

The detective nodded. He finally appeared satisfied with all that needed to be addressed. "Thank you, son," he shuffled together the files and held them close to his chest. "I don't think you will have to worry about anything more from us then."

With not much else being said, he was walked back out to the front lobby office area where Hiro saw Aunt Cass waiting for him. She was also standing next to two cardboard boxes, stacked on top of each other. The bottom was notably larger. The other one was his blue armor.

"Good news, you are cleared to go home," she said, briefly hugging Hiro when he came within her reach. "But you still have a lot of explaining to do, Mister!"

* * *

Hiro buckled into the front seat of Aunt Cass's little pick-up truck. It was dark now, but fortunately not too late into the evening.

As expected, his aunt began talking to him about everything, mostly due to her nerves getting the better of her. "I don't know... I don't know. It's exciting you were there to help save someone who was lost inside a portal, and also bring an end to the masked menace who somehow got ahold of your microbots.. but it was still  _scary_  watching that on the news. That strange portal sucking apart the building... And then when I heard from the police that it was  _you,_  and Baymax- no, a  _different_  kind of Baymax... I couldn't believe it! But... you did good. I'm glad. Yeah... Just, you  _have_  to let me know next time, okay, sweetie?"

"I'm sorry," Hiro responded quietly, after she had paused for a few long seconds.

"Good. Wow... I am  _really_  grateful for your friends from the lab now. They called and came right over to the cafe after I got the news from the police.  Superheroes... really?  All this time? Well, they offered to help at the cafe so I didn't have to close it to come to the police station. Honey, bless her heart, she has lots of experience working at restaurants before, and Eh, Wyatt? Very good managerial skills. I've really been thinking a lot lately about getting more help just so I can have more time to spend with you... Especially now that, well, you know. I just feel so bad I haven't made time -"

He had to put a hand on her shoulder this time to get her to break. "It's  _okay,_  Aunt Cass, just... You don't have to change your schedules again. I'm doing better now, really..."

"Well, I don't know," she gave him another good look when they stopped at a red light. At the moment, he just looked flat out exhausted. And badly in need of a haircut. She felt like she deserved the Worse Parent of the Year Award right now. "You must be famished too. I'll whip up something quick for you and the others when we get home."

"S'okay, really," Hiro looked away out the side window. He didn't know why, but he felt like he needed to say it, even if she may not know what he was talking about. "Baymax is gone."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry about that too," she looked over at him again with that look that she wished she could hug him right there. "Wait, what was in that other box?"

"Just what was left of his armor."

"I see… Yeah, he definitely was a good thing.. for you." And there was that knowing look with a smile, telling him she did know. Somehow. "I couldn't help it, I spied on you working with him down in the garage the other night. You were suddenly acting so differently, I had to know why!"

Hiro nodded, despite his surprise of her revelation, and sighed. But that memory didn't really help though. It just made him feel even more depressed. He felt like he completely failed his brother now by taking advantage of Baymax. Deep down he still wondered if Tadashi would have been okay in knowing that he programmed Baymax to also fight. He had no real intent to actually take the big guy to a bot fight, at least. 

The truck abruptly stopped in the parking spot on the steep incline, followed with the loud clicks of the emergency brake being set. He was already out of the vehicle before she turned off the ignition.

"Alrighty then, once we get some food in you and a good nights rest, you'll be feeling much better by tomorrow!" Aunt Cass walked up to Hiro and gripped his shoulders in an embrace on their way inside.


	2. Integrity

 

_"Possess the Right Thinking…"_

Much to Aunt Cass's relief, everything appeared to be running smoothly as they walked into her cafe. There was a couple finishing up by the front, and another man sitting with his tablet by the window side. The other four lab friends were situated closer to the front counter. Wasabi was behind it, by the cash register, and Honey Lemon was talking casually with another patron on her way out.

"I can't tell you enough how much I appreciated this. As soon as everyone is out, I'll make it up to ya!" Aunt Cass sincerely thanked them, before walking to the front to turn off the closed sign, hoping no others still come in.

"Hey, hey!" Fred stood up from the small table he was sitting at, "The Big Hero is in da house!" He gave Hiro a big congratulating slap on the back, nearly knocking him over. The mascot had joked earlier how much the younger Hamada's name sounded like 'hero', and decided that's what they could call themselves.

"Yeah, thanks," Hiro suddenly became a little wary of the looks he was getting from the other customers now. But that could be from how Fred was acting.

"Yep... Hero, like short for superhero, that's the best I could come up with," Fred added, whispering closer to Hiro's ear. "We were the Hero 6!" Fred gave him a thumbs-up with a wink.

"You just lucked out," GoGo added, stepping up to 'save' him from Fred. She could sense Hiro still wasn't in the talking mood. "Everything with the cops go okay?"

Hiro slid onto the bar stool by the counter and the wall, next to the cash register. "Yeah, they just had questions about the microbots."

"That's it?" Wasabi shook his head. "I would think they should have at least gave us medals... Man."

"Oh.. now that's too bad," Aunt Cass nodded, also realizing that no one gave them any kudos.

"We decided to stay low, away from the media," Gogo lowered her voice to explain exactly why to Aunt Cass.

"Whatever happened downtown... that was some crazy stuff!" The couple commented to Aunt Cass, as their response to the newsflash on the TV about Krei Tech on the news.

"It was.. we were there, frontcand center!" Fred sauntered over to them, boasting rather proudly.

"Wow, awesome, guys!" he man of the couple nodded before they headed out.

"Fred!" GoGo grabbed his shirt after the other people left. "What are you doing? You told us to not reveal ourselves!"

"Oh yeah... my bad," he laughed nervously, shrinking a little under her glare.

"Idiot," she let him go, muttering further obscenities under her breath.

"Hopefully they weren't anyone we should worry about," Honey Lemon tried to reassure her and the others.

Aunt Cass locked the cafe doors then turned back toward the others. "Let's call it an early night here. You are all very much welcome to stay for dinner. You guys deserve something especially good. I can throw together some things upstairs and make a party out of it." She went behind the pastry counter to pull the trays out to take upstairs. Of course, not without taking a couple bites from an apple turnover first. "Can make some udon soup, maybe teriyaki chicken, oh, I think there's some shrimp, crab cake, avocado, and frozen red snapper to make sushimaki..."

"Oh here, Ms. Cass, let me help you with those," Honey Lemon gracefully took a tray from her as they went upstairs.

"Food!"

"Did she say sushimaki?"

* * *

The last time all of them were visiting at Hiro's house apartment, it wasn't exactly on very good terms. This time, the mood was much more festive and relaxed, and they needed that. They had sat on the floor and the couch around the coffee table to best accommodate everyone. Various topics of discussion ranged from humorous instruction on how to eat with chopsticks to the best ways to slice and eat raw fish. Turns out Wasabi was quite the expert.

Aunt Cass finally had to ask what their real names were again, only because she felt awkward addressing by their nicknames in certain company. While Wasabi and Honey Lemon's nicknames made sense, GoGo's back story came as a surprise. Not only was she an orphaned Korean, but she also had a history of street racing. Then to avoid delving too much into that, GoGo pressured Fred as to why he didn't have a nickname. This conversation in turn prompted Aunt Cass to wonder how the whole superhero idea came into existence. There was a little bit of hesitation after that question, the others pretty much looking to Fred again.

"It was not obvious?" Fred smiled as he began his explanation for Aunt Cass. "The idea came up after we began to wonder about who had taken Hiro's microbots. You see, this dude was not just bad, he was twisted," he spoke with his hands, tensing his fingers to stress his point. "Super hero villain bad. He totally wanted to _kill_ us!"

"Almost... that's the part I don't understand about Callaghan," Hiro jumped in, hoping what Fred said hadn't alarmed her to much, "I mean, just how he went from being totally supportive for his school, to just having no regard for anyone, for you guys… after everything he was known for..."

"Yeah, I really did not see that coming," Wasabi shook his head.

"I told you, it was because we saw too much!" Fred reminded them.

"Could there be someone else involved?" GoGo looked at the boys. She sat on the other side of the table, on the floor across from the couch.

"I started wondering the same," Hiro rubbed his neck in thought. "Could explain the suspicion that detective had about my microbots." The more he thought about it, the whole thing about the series of events from that night seemed suspicious.

"Maybe you should just let the police handle this, now that they have seen the damage that was done?" Aunt Cass tried to not sound like an overbearing chaperone at this point, but her uneasiness about this new revelation did not sit well with her. She did want to know all the details about this at some point, however. Hiro's friends were, hopefully, responsible young adults, so she reminded herself to not nag them. Hopefully later she can get Hiro to tell her more.

"We were thankful to have Baymax keeping us safe," Honey Lemon acknowledged Aunt Cass's uneasiness by patting her shoulder. She added further explanation to help clarify some of the discussion. "Professor Callaghan apparently was also involved with some top secret military experiments. I guess that added involvement might have been too much stress for him."

"I mean, seriously... Callaghan somehow got the whole Super Villain thing down pat. The mask, the super tech, the nightmare inducing aurora-" Fred started his theory again.

"You could be right. No way could Callaghan not have just thought up everything that night of the Expo. The way he was talking at the abandoned research lab, it sounded like he _knew_ about your microbots before you presented them," GoGo looked over to Hiro.

"The way he also was talking about Krei that night of the explosion made me wonder just why he didn't like him," Hiro agreed.

"Y'know, I'm not really supposed tell just anyone this, but with you guys, I'm sure my Dad would understand." Fred leaned forward, rubbing his hands. "I also have connections, with SHIELD. Yeah!"

"SHIELD?" They didn't get it.

"Yes, SHIELD. It's an intelligence agency that takes on special cases like this. It's an acronym that stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."

"Okay... Sounds official enough," GoGo still sounded dubious. She knew all to well now that he had that tendency to exaggerate the extent of his knowledge to persuade them.

"They could give the authorities here a heads up, so that we could help out!" Fred proposed hopefully.

"Really? Wow..."

"Okay, I think we first need some more training before pursuing anything remotely dangerous," Wasabi openly admitted. After all, they didn't fight like the superheroes they had hoped to be against Callaghan.

Normally, Hiro would not back down from a challenge, but this time he also had to agree it was too soon. "And I don't have Baymax," he sat back on the couch.

"But we have seen what you are capable of, Hiro. Can't you rebuild him?" GoGo asked.

"Maybe... but without his programming, I doubt he would be the same," Hiro countered.

"He doesn't have a back-up somewhere?" Wasabi wondered. "Man, I'm practically making three back-ups of anything I do, because you never know!"

"Well, I mean that Tadashi used behavior-based AI in Baymax. He was practically learning and building new updates to his knowledge base so that the next time an event occurs, he gets better at responding to it."

"Yeah, I started to notice that too," Wasabi nodded.

"That's what made him so great!" Fred smirked. "I had to keep reminding myself he was a robot."

"So all your upgrades on Baymax will be lost?" Lemon Honey confirmed.

"At least this time, you know how to do it. Just doing it all over again won't be that long, right?" Fred wondered.

"Yeah, but… it still won't be the same," Hiro looked down, then finally decided to say it. "It's not the Baymax that Tadashi made."

"I'm sorry about that, Hiro," Honey Lemon empathized.

"But didn't you say you had taken karate?" Fred still had to ask.

Hiro just pressed the palms into his forehead as his response to that question. He didn't want to say anything, but his head was also starting to hurt, most likely from the tension.

Wasabi sitting on the floor next to the couch, prodded Fred's leg as a subtle queue to "let it go" for tonight. He also noticed how late it was getting. "Wow, don't know about the rest of you, but after a hard day's fight, I can barely move!"

"Me too," Honey Lemon agreed.

Aunt Cass took the motion to wish them well. "Thank you again for, well, everything! I mean it."

Wasabi managed to get his stiff legs moving enough so he could stand up and help with some clean-up. "Likewise, Ms. Cass. You sure know how to cook!"

With the others distracted in clean-up and more small talk, Hiro decided to slip away upstairs to his room for a break.

Aunt Cass looked up that way briefly. She noticed to looks of concern from Gogo and Honey Lemon too. "It's been one heckuva big day," she sighed.

"Can't argue with you on that," Honey Lemon agreed, giving Aunt Cass a quick hug. "Are you doing better, Ms. Cass?"

"I think so," she smiled at the two girls. "I admire your strength too, which is a good thing to have, I suppose."

Fred and Wasabi announced that they were ready to head out, but GoGo told them to wait a few minutes. She smoothly jogged up the stairs, only pausing briefly at the top.

"Hey," she said with her tough girl tone, standing at the top of the stairs with one hand leaning against the wall there. A lone desk lamp illuminated an otherwise large, dark attic bedroom.

Hiro had turned around from his desk area with a start. Since he had just changed his clothes a couple minutes ago, her unexpected presence left him feeling more on edge.

"You forgot to say goodbye," GoGo took a couple steps closer, pausing to rest a hand on her hip.

"Uh, yeah... Sorry," Hiro ran a hand though his hair in thought. His eyes darted back down to the floor to avoid hers.

GoGo then softened, lowering her voice to let on that she was just teasing him. "Hey, I just want to apologize if we said anything upsetting."

"S'okay," he sat down on his computer chair sideways and straddled his arm over the back rest. He was starting to realize how uncomfortable her presence was making him feel, and became very self-conscious about himself around her.

The speedster moved in closer and sat on his bed to be on the same level with him. "You sure?"

Hiro looked at GoGo long enough to make eye contact before he shifted his focus again, "Maybe. Just got a lot of stuff to figure out."

Her intense gaze was still on him. Hiro tried to make eye contact with her again, noticing more now how she did look more worried. But worried about him? _Why_?

"This is not like you, Hiro, " GoGo leveled with him. "I still believe you can rebuilt Baymax."

"I know… I just…" he gave up trying to explain his feeling. That the last real connection he had with Tadashi was through _his_ Baymax. But now the robot was also gone, just so that the man who caused the fire that killed Tadashi, could have his daughter back alive.

"Okay, I think I get it," GoGo started slowly, with emphasis. "Yes, Tadashi built him. He put all his hard work, all his dreams, and his best intentions into that robotic design, and _nothing_ can replace that."

Hiro turned in his chair to face her. He knew all too well of that fact as the last part of Baymax's video resurfaced in his mind again.

"Today was just a setback, but don't let that stop you. Baymax is not really out of the game. 'Cause you know what? It was really never Tadashi's plan to make only _one_ Baymax." GoGo gripped his shoulders in reassurance, "I bet your brother would be honored if you took on his Baymax project, and 'did more' with it!"

This time Hiro was able to keep his eyes steady on hers, a small smile of inspiration creeping across his face. He only glanced behind her for a moment to Tadashi's side of the room when her words had clicked. A couple days after the funeral, they had brought over much of Tadashi's documents and research, along with Baymax in suitcase form, to store in that side of the room. In his denial, he really didn't want to think about that and what it represented then. It had been all too much to take in then.

"Okay?"

He nodded, blinking his eyes. He took a deep breath, trying to shake the wave of emotion that just hit him.

GoGo sat back, satisfied. "The lab's waiting."

"Okay... for Tadashi," Hiro was barely audible.

"You're not the only one who misses him, y'know." Then with a smug grin, GoGo held out a fist.

Hiro looked at her once in apparent disbelief, and then at the fist.

"C'mon! You know you wanna!" GoGo teased, only to catch him into a quick hug.

* * *

"He's okay. Let's go," GoGo announced matter of factly as she went down the stairs.

"Awesome!" Fred cheered.

Hiro followed after a few steps behind, then paused on the star landing. "Yeah, good night, guys. I guess I'll see you... Monday?"

"Great! We'll see you too, Hiro!" Honey Lemon stepped up to give him a quick hug.

As they headed out, Aunt Cass make sure to stop GoGo briefly, "Thanks," she smiled sincerely.

"Anytime," GoGo smiled, before stepping outside.

"What did you talk about?" Honey Lemon asked her a little more quietly as they walked toward the sidewalk, where Fred's butler was waiting with the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the shortness of these first couple of chapters... I do not have a much free time to write. But I am so excited to be writing something new after an 8 year hiatus!
> 
> I will also confess, I am one of those fans who love the characters for how they had been portrayed in the movie, rather than try to AU them too much. The more I study these guys from the movie, the more I love Disney's adaptation from the original comic book characters (never really read the comic - just what the wikis have said about them). Lots of unspoken details are there about the team that would be missed if one doesn't know! (like how movie GoGo is also a Korean!)
> 
> The tenets I refer to are the five in Tae Kwon Do, but I am also drawing my quotes from many martial art philosophies and action movies too. Enjoy!


	3. Perseverance

_"If you are going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill, on perseverance_

Black shapes were shifting, chasing, and suddenly blacking out his vision. Panic set in when the bright explosions become more frequent in the confusion. Falling through the dark swirling shapes mixed with contrasting flashes of flame caused Hiro to wake up with a start. The distraught teen rolled over to his back with a gasp. _It was just a dream, just a crazy, stupid dream..._ he told himself.

The faint early morning light erased some of the cold darkness from his room. He pulled his blankets back over his head and curled up on his side. Sleep would not come back. In an effort to forget the nightmare, he tried to redirect his thoughts on how to go about rebuilding Baymax again. That was when more questions came, questions he had no solid answers for.

Eventually, the young teen groaned and sat up in his bed. He wrapped the blankets around his shoulders against the chilly morning air and then hugged his knees. His gaze settled on his Tadashi's side of the room in thought. No doubt about it, he was going to have to look through his stuff to find out. Hiro sighed, laid his head on his knees, and closed his eyes.

Neither he nor Aunt Cass had really done anything yet about his brother's belongings after the funeral a month ago. The clothes were still in the drawers, Tadashi's books and things still sat on the shelves. Hiro did end up unplugging his brother's alarm clock to keep that from going off every morning. It was one thing whenever Tadashi happened to miss coming home a night or two because he was pulling an all-nighter, or staying at a friend's house, but this time, there was no Tadashi coming back.

A part of him wanted all of Tadashi's stuff moved out so it didn't remind him anymore, but then he wondered if the empty space would just make him feel worse. Nothing seemed to make the hurt go away though. Was he ever going to get over feeling like this?

Hiro looked over there again. Despite the paper screen now blocking most of the view, he spotted the books and document boxes on and around Tadashi's little desk. He remembered hearing the others say they did not completely clean out Tadashi's lab, because he should have the honor to have it next. But his interest about the Institute was not the same after the accident.

Hiro honestly didn't think too much about what he would specialize his major in after getting into SFIT. He just wanted to work on robotics projects with his brother at an awesome school. Or something like that. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life either. All that Hiro really wanted was to take a break from school for a while. Everything was just moving too fast, really. _But no..._ __  
  
He closed his eyes once more feeling the frustration build. Why did his brother have to be so heroic? Why did he have to be so worried about a professor who apparently could take care of himself? Why? Why did he have to have such a responsible brother? Sure, Tadashi had always managed to be there for him lately, being his rock. Guiding him, encouraging him, even saving his butt from god knows what – but, how come he couldn't convince his one and only brother that he had a bad feeling. Was it because everyone still thought of him as a child... because he took Tadashi too much for granted?

 _He just.. never gave up on me..._ Hiro rubbed his eyes with his palms, and then ran his hands through his hair in an effort to fight back the emotion. His aunt already told him hundreds of times it wasn't his fault. It wasn't, but he still wished he tried harder to hold him back. That he just did something more.

"I'm sorry… Tadashi. So sorry... especially about Baymax… about everything. What am I supposed to do now?" Hiro whispered, hoping maybe he was somewhere, listening.

He pressed his fingers to his temples, swallowing, trying to regain his composure. It was then that small, quiet voice reminded him again. _Try harder, always try harder. Don't give up... you can do it._

Hiro stared at Tadashi's side of the room once more. He couldn't blame Baymax for his sacrifice though. He was just a robot following his primary directive. A robot he also could put back together again.

Giving him a start, Mochi jumped up on his bed, meowing once, then ran his body alongside Hiro's legs. "Oh.. hey, Mochi," Hiro stroked the curious cat's head in return. He decided at that moment to finally will himself to get out of bed and walk over to that side of the room.

The young teen pushed aside the paper screen, then knelt down to lift the lid from one box on the desk. It was full of spiral notebooks and other report like documents. Looking through a few more boxes, more documents in files, or rubber banded, or clipped, and text books. They looked like raw code, others like litigation, or research printouts about healthcare topics and research. So much literature, and so much reading. This didn't look very encouraging. Hiro had to admit at that point he really wasn't into reading books and reports as much as his brother was.

Then he came across a box that had a blue SFIT hoodie sitting on top. It was new with the tags on it. Hiro noticed the size on it. _No... You didn't._ He held the hoodie up, confirming that the sweatshirt was for him. He finally set it aside, then looked in that box. It had more odds and ends, pens, post-its, stuff from a desk essentially. And finally, there was a couple media storage devices and a tablet. He wasn't sure if that was it. Hiro didn't see anything that resembled Tadashi's lab computer around here. Did they leave that there? That's what he wanted to look at the most to see what programs were on it.

Trying to stay positive about this, Hiro picked up the thin tablet in a black, scuffed, polycarbonate case. His brother carried this around with him everywhere, so it had to be his next best bet to finding some insight.

Well, after he cracked the passcode lock. Hiro's first few guesses didn't work, and the tablet temporarily locked up to prevent him from trying anymore attempts. He swore under his breath and tossed it to the bed.

"Okay, think, think, think... It has to be something totally crazy," Hiro muttered while walking around the room in thought. Mochi stayed on his bed, watching him pace. He was briefly distracted by Aunt Cass saying something at the base of the stairs about getting breakfast ready, but this was too important right now.

Something else caught his eye on the back cover of a magazine. It was an auto insurance ad, but the phone number was written with words, not numbers. This clue made him think about when he and Tadashi were younger. He had thought it was fun how to make words using the numbers on a dial pad. It wasn't long before they started to write their own encrypted messages using a similar idea. This also had been one of the games they had played during long road trips.

Hiro grabbed his favorite hoodie to put on, and sat down on Tadashi's bed to get the tablet. After the second try of four letter words encrypted as numbers, he was amazed that he figured it out. "My name. My name... really?" Hiro said it out loud. It was flattering, but also kind of creepy at the same time.

Mochi wondered what was going on and jumped up onto the bed with Hiro. He sat watching the teen quickly swipe and tap at the holographic floating images zooming in and out of the black tablet.

Hiro noticed the usual assortment of general apps but a lot of healthcare related apps. Some featuring robotics, foreign language instruction, and SFIT specific ones on classes Tadashi had taken.

Hiro decided to look in a doc file tab to see if he had some data and video files stored. His search for 'Baymax' produced a lot of interesting results, many of the files falling under a subsection called Journals. If Baymax had that one video, surely there would be more like it.

* * *

Even after cooking quite a bit last night, Aunt Cass felt compelled to cook a big breakfast as well. Closing the café on Sunday to take time and have a nice brunch-style breakfast with her small family was something she vowed to do earlier that year. She felt with the boys getting older, that Sundays could be the one time they could all still eat together, no excuses!

This was the first morning since Tadashi's loss that she felt this tradition should continue. If anything, it was more important than ever for her to retain her relationship with Hiro. Her heart ached so much just thinking how hard it must be for him. She lost her sister, his mother, in a way that didn't seem to make sense either, ten years ago. It was through her interactions with the boys that helped her cope. So many of Tadashi's and Hiro's antics, interests, and personalities often reminded her of what her dear sister and brother-in-law had been like. Tadashi did take after his dad, but Hiro was more like Abigail, head-strong and not afraid to take chances. She often got into a lot of fights with her sister because of that.

Aunt Cass also liked cooking anyway, as it was very cathartic for her. She had been turning the sausage links when her cell phone rang. The ID just said Maldonado, and it took her a moment to remember who it was. She had forwarded Tadashi's number to her phone earlier, with the intent to discontinue his number completely once she felt enough people knew. Honey Lemon, being Tadashi's almost-girlfriend, was among the first to know she had done that, but why was she calling her this way, now?

"Hello?"

"Hi! Is this Ms. Cass?"

"Yes, it is,"

"Hi, it's Yadi. After what had happened yesterday, I thought I should call again and see if Hiro was feeling any better today." She explained with the utmost sincerity.

"Oh, yes, thank you Yadi! I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Hiro hasn't come down yet, but I know he's up." She did agree that everyone had looked really shaken when she first saw them after the incident yesterday. "Are all of you guys also doing okay?"

"Apart from being bruised, yeah. I'm okay. We all are. The armor Hiro designed for us really helped. But... I think the hardest blows were more emotional."

"I could imagine! Finding out that that this was staged by your professor must have been a real shock."

Honey Lemon hesitated before responding, "Did Hiro tell you what also happened yesterday, by chance?"

"Ehm, tell me... which part? Was there something more about his microbots, or Baymax?" Aunt Cass stopped what she was doing to think. It was still a huge leap to fathom everything they went through. Was it always this exciting for Tadashi to keep the younger Hamada in line?

"Well, Hiro was so shocked that Yokai was Callaghan, he took out Tadashi's healthcare chip from Baymax, and then ordered him to 'destroy' him." She spoke softer, "And Baymax responded."

"God, no... He did?" Aunt Cass wasn't sure how to react to that.

"Hiro also put a Bot Fight chip in Baymax, which was programmed so that he would respond only to Hiro's commands. We could not stop Baymax, and Hiro... he wasn't listening to us to make him stop."

"Oh no... no, I'm really sorry that happened!" Aunt Cass had to keep from talking too loudly. Now this was also making more sense as to why the police wanted to keep Hiro afterwards. But thankfully, no one had been reported dead. They just advised her to be careful with the Baymax box. "What happened...? Something must have."

"Callaghan did manage to get away. I also was lucky enough to get Tadashi's chip back in Baymax. He stopped after that, thank god!" The sound of relief was evident in her voice too.

"Wow, he did not tell me..." Aunt Cass subconsciously stabbed a sausage from the plate and started eating it hastily. She also remembered to turn the burner off under the pan.

"Yeah, it took awhile for Hiro to cool off, but he did. Baymax did something to center him again."

"Good, good," Aunt Cass took another sausage to eat.

"I just keep thinking about that moment when Hiro saw that it was Callaghan, Ms. Cass. Hiro must still be having a hard time-"

"Yes, I have been worried about him too. He does not want to eat, he sulks," Aunt Cass interrupted, pacing the kitchen. "Y'know, just the other day when I was doing some cleaning, I noticed his letter from the Institute in the trash can. Full ride scholarship and he wants to throw that away!" She took a few more hasty bites to keep her voice down.

"No... He did? We were starting to wonder..."

"Yes! And after he had told me he was going to the Institute to get started," she paused, "but from what I understand after last night, he hasn't." Aunt Cass decidedly went into her bedroom so that she could vent without fear of Hiro hearing her.

"Yeah, Hiro didn't say anything about going to SFIT. He only talked about finding out who took his microbots."

"That's it. I should take Hiro to a therapist at this rate," she sighed audibly. "I'm at wits end here! I really don't know what would be the best route for him."

"I wish I knew what to say, I'm really sorry," Honey Lemon's sweet soothing voice did at least keep her from completely going on a rampage. "But it does sound like he needs to talk someone."

"Absolutely," Aunt Cass agreed. She still felt hurt about how Hiro no longer saw her as his favorite aunt anymore either. "I'm having no luck. He's gotten to be as tight as a clam around me!"

"Yeah, that's no good," Honey Lemon did her best to hang in there for Aunt Cass's sake now. "Just be patient, Ms. Cass, hopefully Hiro will open up to you when he's ready. Go- eh, Soomin said she got him thinking about SFIT again, if that helps. "

"Okay, good... That's a relief," she sat down on bed. She touched her fingertips to her forehead to calm herself. She admitted to herself again how much she appreciated, and truly missed, Tadashi's willingness to take charge and be responsible for Hiro.

"Are you going to be okay?" She had thought to ask after Aunt Cass had not said anything more.

"Yes, I will be. I am sorry about the outburst. But, thank you for your advice."

"That's okay. You've been through a lot," Honey Lemon responded in kind. "Well, all of us agreed to meet up at your cafe tomorrow to see Hiro. Is that okay?"

"Yes, that'll be great! Oh, before I forget, can I give you my cell number?"

* * *

Hiro was propped up on his elbow, laying on Tadashi's bed as he skimmed over one of the documents in the Tablet. He shut down the holographic feature on the tablet and sat up when he heard Aunt Cass coming up the stairs.

"Hey, good morning," she said, glancing around briefly. "Sleep well?"

"I guess," he shrugged.

"How are you feeling?" Aunt Cass sat next to him on the bed and rubbed his back.

"Better," he glanced at her, noticing how she was looking over the open boxes.

She then looked at him with a look that seemed to expect something more than short answers.

"Just looking for something about Baymax," Hiro explained, with some hesitation. "Except there's nothing about the programming here."

"Hey, that's okay to do. It's a start, right?" She smiled. "Oh, we also put the bigger things down in the garage."

"Oh, yeah," Hiro realized that too. However, he also remembered those and knew nothing that resembled a computer was there either. "But.. I think what I am looking for is still at the lab."

"All the more reason," Aunt Cass used that lead to also remind him. "Besides, you have until this Wednesday to register for this semester."

"Yeah," he looked down at the tablet.

"Since I'm free today, I can help you take some of this that you need back to the lab today."

Hiro was silent for a long second or two before looking over to her. "The letter… I'm sorry about that, Aunt Cass." He did notice the letter was gone from his room last night, and wondered if she saw it. What he just heard from her phone call had confirmed it.

"You heard?" The look Aunt Cass gave him in return was almost equally priceless, however.

"Just that part," he bit his lip, bracing for the worse.

Rather than make a further issue of this, she surprisingly hugged him instead. "Oh, I'm sorry too, Hiro. But I'm glad.. glad that you will go!"

He managed a smile, when she released her embrace.

"Hey, breakfast is getting cold. Let's go eat," Aunt Cass stood up and tugged on his arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I felt that Aunt Cass needed more attention in this chapter. Working on making these chapters longer as I gain more understanding about these characters. Thank you for reading!
> 
> P.S. Mochi also needed some love too. XD


	4. Self Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a doozy, but it is well worth it. Enjoy!

_Without self-control, a martial arts student is just like any fighter in the street. Loss of self-control is disastrous both in sparring and personal affairs. "Stronger is the person who wins over oneself rather than someone else", Lao Tzu_

Hiro followed his aunt downstairs to the kitchen. She was quite serious about the big breakfast part. He imagined it was also going to take a little time for her to get used to cooking for the two of them.

"You didn't have to, Aunt Cass," Hiro commented, looking at the dishes with Chinese vegetable egg pancakes, sausage links, and cinnamon rolls. A bowl of citrus fruit salad sat at the end of the red counter. It wasn't that Hiro didn't enjoy eating. He just found the task to be such a bother to schedule into his busy brainstorming and building sessions.

"Please," she handed him a plate. "I want to! Sundays have been our one day together, and nothing's going to change that."

Hiro just nodded but without wanting to dwell too much on that thought. He stabbed a cinnamon roll with his fork and got a spoonful of the fruit before turning to go upstairs.

"Hey, hold up," Aunt Cass caught the teen by the hood of his sweatshirt.

 _That, has got to stop._ Hiro mentally groaned while pulling his hoodie jacket back into place. "Please, Aunt Cass? It's just that I have a lot of stuff to go through."

"No, Hiro," Aunt Cass wasn't going to let him coerce her this time. "You got the _whole_ day, what's the hurry?"

He sat down heavily at the small table in the kitchen instead. "It's a lot of stuff," he grumbled.

His aunt just clucked her tongue once, feigning her sympathy. She sat down across from him with her plate. "Well, it won't be long before you'll be graduating, getting a job, and moving out with a girlfriend - preferably in that order - and so we need to be thankful for this day, right now."

 _Girlfriend...? Really?_ Hiro nonchalantly chewed on a strawberry. Hopefully she wasn't going to get anymore awkward than that.

Aunt Cass moved some sausage link and an egg pancake to his plate. "But honestly," she paused to look eye to eye with her nephew, "I just want to be able to talk with you."

"Yeah," Hiro shifted his eyes off from her gaze to look at his food.

"I also want to apologize if I seemed to come off as overbearing about a lot of your choices lately." Her tone was softer this time. "I will not lie though, when I say that our life was anything but a typical storybook tale. It's been a real challenge to try to stay one step ahead of everything!"

Hiro just nodded, eating slowly.

"Hiro, I just want to promise you... If there is anything you need to tell me, you should tell me or ask me, it's okay. I will do my best to try to understand you. After all, you are getting older and with that, more mature and responsible," She did to her best to explain most sincerely.

"Okay..." Hiro looked at his aunt again. He knew what she was saying, but yet a part of him wasn't sure how long she was going to keep her word. There are just some things he will never ever want to tell her about, just because.

"So... You still have not told me what the detective asked you about yesterday," Aunt Cass said after finishing a swallow of coffee. "After the conversations last night, I need to know the rest of the story!"

"Well, um, it was just about the microbots, really," he shrugged

"Such as... how Callaghan got them?" Aunt Cass pressed.

"Yeah, that.. and if my bot fighting history had anything to do with it. But it didn't," Hiro stabbed at another strawberry.

* * *

_**9/23/2023 - Thesis Idea / Rough draft for the report by Tadashi Hamada** _

_I have been considering this project for some time. I want to do this in honor and memory of my parents, for what they dedicated their lives to doing. My father was a doctor from Japan, who specialized in treating patients in third world countries with live saving drugs. Japan also had developed medicines that could help cure some if these infectious diseases many years ago. He had spent much of his time helping to control high occurrences of infectious diseases, like ebola. Dr. Hamada also worked closely with other organizations like Doctors Without Borders. That was also how he met his wife, Abigail. She was an American nurse assisting though DWB. The work these people do is tremendous!_

_Even though I hadn't chosen the same medical career as my parents, I chose to instead support the healthcare industry through the application of technology and robotics._

_It was hard to believe that just 25 years ago, the idea of using advanced technology in hospitals and doctor's offices was greatly frowned upon. There is still a lot of resistance about many ideas, but as long as the required security measures are in place, the technology is gradually becoming accepted._

_Unfortunately, my parents are no longer alive. They would have been a tremendous support and great resource. However, my family did have connections with other colleagues and family that could also provide assistance._

_For my thesis project, I want to design and build a robot, a nurse bot, that would care for patients. The robot would be portable, so the doctor could travel with it easily. The robot would also be friendly, non-threatening, and knowledgeable to help all kinds of people._

_What I also understand that biggest resistance about tech in the clinical setting was the fear it would distance the patient from the doctor and nurse. Or worse, more mistakes would occur because the doctors and nurses rely and trust more on the tech's data, but not their own instincts. This is something I also like to improve upon._

_Of course, the first beta I plan to build will be for our local hospitals and ER medbays. Perhaps if I contact children's hospitals as well, that will be the true test to prove that robots can provide care as well as a person._

_**\- 6/8/2024 - Challenge -** _

_My Dad often worked abroad, so we hardly got to see him in person very much. For the times he did have with us as a family, he made the best of it._

_I remember he was most concerned about our wellbeing. That we would always have good manners, integrity, and responsibility towards everyone. He made sure we ate well too, with lots of vegetables and rice, and not so much candy._

_It was even important to him that we also knew WHO we were. Even though our mom was American, he took great care that my brother and I also understood our Japanese ancestry. This was one reason why he wanted us to have Japanese first names. We have American ones too, as our middle names, but unlike many other biracial families, our parents chose to name us that way._

_In addition, he wanted me to know how to eat with chopsticks as soon as I was able to. I think I was 5 when he threw away my kiddy chopsticks._

_Dad strongly believed that the hand-eye coordination and dexterity improved with increased use. He also said it would help me eat slower too, because he said I was eating way too fast. I would be so hungry, I would finish my dinner before my mom was halfway through hers._

_So he created this chopstick challenge. He would put a handful of hard uncooked short grain rice on a small plate. There would be another empty plate about a foot apart. He first asked me to pick up 10 grains, then 20 and 25, and transfer them to the other plate. Rice that I dropped on the table, or had bounced off the plate did not count. I also had to eat with nothing but chopsticks. No spoon or fork at all, just to slow me down when I ate._

_It was really challenging learning how to use chopsticks that well! After I had managed to pick up the rice, he would time me, or race against me to see how fast I could do it._

_I really appreciate everything he did teach me about how to be a better person. It was not just about knowing who we were, but how to also respect others so they would like us more. To try my best in everything I do, and to not give up. Because there may come a time that we will be fathers of our own families, and he hoped we would raise our children the same way._

_I also thank him, as fate had it, as I ended up being the one to teach my little brother how to eat with chopsticks in the same way. I don't think I was as effective as Dad was, but I wasn't going to stop trying._

_**\- 6/10/2024 - Keys -** _

_My brother's curiosity about technology when he was a toddler was increasingly insatiable. One of the first incidents that I could remember was what Hiro did to our Aunt's laptop._

_I think this was when he was almost 4. I was 8, so I was in school at the time. Aunt Cass was baby-sitting Hiro that day. She said the phone had rang, so she went to another room to talk because he started to sing loudly while he was playing._

_She didn't talk that long on the phone, but when she came back she saw that not only did Hiro find her laptop, he had removed all the keys from the keyboard. She was speechless. The little black keys were sitting everywhere on the coffee table in the living room._

_Aunt Cass was about to reprimand him for doing that, when she noticed that he actually was trying to put some back on the naked keyboard. He was trying to tell her "A B C" since he was singing the Alphabet song earlier. She told me that the three on the keyboard were A, B, C, D… in that order. Apparently, it must have bugged Hiro that the keys were not in alphabetical order._

_Aunt Cass asked me if I could help her put the keys back on when I got home from school. Surprisingly, I was able to fix it and the keys still worked - except for the right shift key. It also took us some time to convince Hiro afterwards that it was okay they were not in order, because he tried to do it again!_

_We had to keep the laptop out of his reach for sometime after that. Until he started taking apart other things, like the remote control car, the DVD player, and then my Nintendo 3DS! This could be one reason I had also started to like robotics and technology so much. I had to put everything back together that my brother took apart!_

_**\- 6/16/2024 - Sweet -** _

_This is the first time I ever felt like this about anyone before. I just keep thinking about her so much now. Her soft, blonde hair, her sweet, shiny lips, the way she smells so beautiful. My girl really is as sweet as honey when I taste her ki-_

_No. Just, no!_ Hiro quickly swiped the page. He had guessed there was something going between Honey Lemon and Tadashi, but that was way too much information. He tossed the tablet aside, rubbing his face.

* * *

The drive over to the Technology building normally doesn't take long, but a bottleneck from an accident at one of the intersections changed that. "Good thing we decided to make this one trip," Aunt Cass sighed.

Likewise, Hiro had taken advantage of the dull situation by looking through the tablet. While he still hadn't found clear answers to his questions, the written and video journal entries did help in understanding the background that prompted Tadashi to create Baymax. Many of the entries directly related to Baymax were video journals. Ironically, they were also the ones that Baymax played for him yesterday. He couldn't watch them again, just because it reminded him of too much.

The plethora of other journal entries apparently was the result of a creative writing class his brother had taken over the summer. Hiro figured out that Tadashi had been writing to one word prompts. As the expression goes, curiosity killed the cat, and he could not stop reading them, especially the ones about him...

_**\- 7/14/2024 - Option -** _

_College is not an option, ever. This is what dad told me hundreds of times. I was only in second grade, and I doubt I even had a clear understanding about what that was then. I just know I was getting tired of all the homework I had to do, when I rather just play video games. I finally got it though._

_It's not just a school for more learning about, well, learning. College is the place where you actually get to apply what you have learned. It helps you learn how to set goals, and in short, help you prepare for a good career that will support you (and your family) for the rest of your life. Otherwise, life will not be easy._

_Being that dad was a doctor, he didn't expect anything less for our future. While he was okay with the idea that we may not want to follow in his shoes, he at least wanted me to know we had to get higher education._

_That being said, I still fail to understand how Hiro got it into his big head that swapping out college for bot-fighting was okay! Sure, it pays well right now, but that money comes with a price. Bot fighting is very risky, and it's practically rigged by gang leaders._

_I'm glad now Hiro doesn't cover his tracks very well - he always leaves the bot-fight website up on his monitor. I saw where the active fight was, and got there just before he was going to get his lights knocked out. Worse yet, the cops caught us with that gang and threw us in the slammer. But what does Hiro do after all that? Look for another bot-fight to go to! I mean, the cops already took all the money he had, how was he gonna pull that off? I really have no better way to explain what I was thinking then without getting graphic._

_Fortunately, this idea came to me after I remembered Dad's motto about college. I had to act like I was taking his side though, especially after he pulled that guilt card on me. It bothers him whenever I talk about our parents, like he's getting tired of me always being their messenger. Pictures and stories just aren't the same as the conscious memories of mom's touch, her hugs and words of encouragement. He never knew what it was like either to be scolded by Dad for what felt like an hour, after enduring the pain of punishment._

_I'm worried about my brother now more than ever. It's easy being a big brother for him, but it's obvious he needs more guidance. I get it that he wants more supplies and equipment to build with, and the best stuff costs money, but.. illegal bot fighting? Heaven help him!_

_My plan worked though. If making bigger, better, faster robots is what Hiro loves, then reminding him what San Fransokyo's Institute of Technology was all about had worked. It's not just a lab of nerds, really. Hiro was in love with SFIT before I even showed him my lab. Of course, it was pure luck that Dr. Robert Callaghan was in the building to meet him that night too. Meeting him reeled my brother in completely._

_I never felt so relieved ever before in my life after that. College will_ never _be a option!_

_**\- 7/16/2024 - Lost -** _

_I don't remember all the details of my early childhood clearly, but I do know the first 5 years was spent traveling to different places. My Dad was a doctor that specialized in treating diseases for third world countries. Because of this, sometimes we would travel together as a family if the trip was a short one. My mom and I stayed in Europe for a few weeks when my dad was stationed in Africa. We also got to see the pyramids in Egypt too._

_I never was afraid of flying then, especially since we traveled by airplane often. I thought this was fun and exciting at that age, seeing different worlds with my family._

_I was nine when this way of life changed everything I knew, forever. Usually it was my Dad who flew abroad by himself for most trips. But sometimes my mom's services as a nurse were requested too. After my brother was born, however, Hiro and I stayed with other family members if they both had to go. Often times we stayed with my mom's sister, and other times it was with my Dad's parents near Kyoto in Japan._

_We were with my Dad's parents when the bad news came. A plane had disappeared over the ocean. It was flying to Beijing, China. At the time, all that our relatives could say was that the plane crashed into the sea. My young mind couldn't understand how, or why. Planes were supposed to not do that, especially if it was carrying my parents._

_My Dad's parents were old, and not able to keep my brother and I for long, so our aunt agreed to take custody. My mom's parents lived in Oregon, but Aunt Cass was planning to move to San Fransokyo to start a business there, so she could make room for us. My brother could not understand why mom did not come back, or why I was moody and upset for awhile. He was only 3, but eventually Aunt Cass turned him around. She also told me to try to stay strong for my little brother, and for us to even hug each other if we started to feel scared. It took me longer to cope, than it did for Hiro. Visiting more with our relatives and remembering Dad's wisdom also had helped me._

_A couple years later I was reading about airline incidents in general, and found an article about the one my parents were part of. That flight was described as "missing". Its wreckage was never found, nor was the black box. It was reasoned that if it crashed in the ocean, the currents and the depths scattered the debris far and wide. All the reports about it were very conflicting in nature. Even stranger, a few months later another flight from that same airline was accidentally shot down for being in a militarized zone._

_It took me some time to swallow that reality. My parents were never really found. No one in my family really talked about that fact either. We all just said they died in a plane crash. I didn't want to fly again for a long time after knowing that._

* * *

Hiro looked up from the tablet after that particular journal. That, coupled with what Tadashi really felt about him after that night they got arrested, it just left a heaviness from sorrow in his gut again. Sometimes, just not knowing was better. He closed the tablet, then sighed before glancing to his aunt.

"Aunt Cass..." he finally asked, "How.. How did my parents die?"

She looked at him, appearing to be a little surprised by that question. That, and perhaps because he rarely seemed to care to ask about them before.

"In a plane crash," she wasn't sure why he was asking. "I thought you knew that."

"Well, yeah, but," Hiro looked at the tablet again. A lot of those entries were kind of personal, and he debated again about making an issue about it.

She looked over to him briefly, also glancing at the tablet too. "But?"

"Nothing..."

"No, what is it?"

Hiro ran his hand through his shaggy hair, quickly thinking about something else. "Just remembered that my mom's name was also Abigail."

"Yes," Aunt Cass had further hesitation.

"Callaghan's daughter, her name is Abigail. Just... It's kind of weird when you think about it."

"Hm, yeah."

* * *

GoGo walked into her area of the open lab at SFIT and sighed in disgust. When they had joked about this place being the home away from home, it was meant to just be that. A joke. She opened a bench by the wall to lock her duffle bag containing the now secret super suit. It was going to be a long sleepless night this time. The thought of trying to pass the time here at the lab didn't help her mood any either. GoGo took a final gulp from her lukewarm energy drink before pitching in it the trash can.

That moment was when she made up her mind. She really needed to find her own place, like now. Her roommate that she shared the apartment with was driving her nuts. That girl had brought over some guy and well, they were practically making out on the floor of the living room when she walked in. The month before, she forgot to pay her half of the rent, and had been eating some of GoGo's food too. _Why do these thoughtless people exist?_ __  
  
With nowhere else to go after that, GoGo headed over to the lab. As long as she had her ID pass, she was still able to gain access after-hours. She really did not want to explain her awkward situation to any of the others in the Nerd Lab group either. That would especially be too much after the day they had.

Even though GoGo came to San Fransokyo from LA, she couldn't really afford the dorms the school provided. So like many other students in this similar situation, she looked to room with another student to cut down on that expense. Well, two failed roommates later, and she has totally given up on this idea.

GoGo had rode her old maglev bike here, but she craved something faster to zip along the dark roads along the bayside. There also was something she wanted to check on her new bicycle, to compare it against the blade wheel design of her super suit. The cyclist pulled out a couple sticks of gum from her jacket to chew, and activated the bluetooth she built into her helmet to sync with the radio-cast set on her smartphone.

She unlatched her lightweight, yellow maglev bike from the hooks with ease. Once latching her shoes in place on the pedals, the bike propelled quickly out into the long hallway. This way got her outside faster, even though it had a way of making the other students nervous. She never hit anyone though.

This time of night was absolutely the best. Hardly anyone was out on the roads, even the cops could give a rat's rump about how fast she was going... for a bicyclist. Once she got to the outskirts of town, where the stop lights were few and the cool breeze of the ocean filled the air, she pushed herself harder. Striving to go faster, trying to feel what part about this design was preventing it from reaching maximum speed.

The answer was in her grasp. Hiro had combined her maglev design with renewable energy powerpacks to create her supersuit. Then used the electromagnetic fields to lock the disks to her ankles and wrists. Those additional power cells allowed her to magnify her own speed with each stride, and made her go faster. But how he constructed the suit to make that possible, she failed in keeping up with all of his calculations.

The question she had for herself, was how to apply this concept to her bicycle. It operated differently that a single bladed skate. Or did it? Her first maglev concept replaced all the bolts and gears that propelled a normal bicycle. All that hardware caused friction and added extra weight, so she wanted to refine previous designs to make a much faster bicycle.

Adjusting the polarity on the magnetic rings inside the brackets and wheels was the easy part. Finding a streamlined design for the electromagnetic drive train that would provide blinding speed continued to plaque her.

The news updates she heard regarding the Krei building frequently interrupted the music she played. This seemed to be the most exciting event that had happened in San Fransokyo, since... the explosion that gutted the convention center. With the link made between the two, Callaghan was now in a lot of hot water.

GoGo eventually made full circle back toward SFIT. The ache in her muscles and the gnawing fatigue tried to consume her, slow her down, but she ignored it.

The lab was quiet now, and she felt like she was the only one there that night. Usually during the week there would be many more students throughout the building at work on their projects. She wondered again if that had something to do with the Krei mess too.

After hanging up her bike, the tired cyclist found a protein bar in her locker. She went over to sit front of her laptop at a work table to look at her other schematics for the bike. The idea Hiro had for the maglev blades she wore was truly a revelation for her. He literally dissected a maglev design she was working on for over a year, and had perfected it with perfect balance, thrust, and aerodynamics, in no time at all!

That amazed her, just how quickly he processed algorithms, formulas, and physics like it was as easy as breathing. Yet, when it came to common sense knowledge, Hiro needed help. The thing about him that almost amused her was how indifferent he acted toward her, toward the others. That boy would get so focused on task, he almost forgot about who they were as people.

After witnessing Hiro's reaction to Callaghan on the island, there was clearly something more bothering him. Something else that was there long before he lost Tadashi. In the length of time GoGo and the others had gotten to know him while building the microbots, through the funeral, and the chase after yokai, Hiro had not mentioned any other friends. He was an introvert and his shy demeanor confirmed that, and as a result, he guarded himself from opening up and trusting people.

Her assumption was that something must have happened in high school to sour him. Being who he was, Hiro must have immediately felt left out, then started to hang with the wrong crowd, and was very likely tempted with all the wrong things. Even though she could not fathom what it must be like for a brainiac, she knew all to well the pressures of trying to fit into a teenage world. Except he wasn't exactly a teenager, yet. Honey Lemon naturally had to tell her about the battle bot incident that landed both Hiro and Tadashi in jail. Something that crazy just had to be shared.

With that in mind, it was easy to guess that Hiro started to use his robots to protect him, to give him power. The bot fights gave him that rush. Because if he could out-smart a power mongering gang leader, then who would dare to try bullying him?

Gogo made this connection the night they found him in the harbor with a battle-ready Baymax, and suddenly being chased by out of control microbots. She wasn't sure if the others also noticed that about him, but she strongly felt that was why Hiro lost it during their fight with Yokai.

The one other person whom Hiro had admired, had completely betrayed him. Not only was Hiro angry, he was blinded with some kind of fear. So he did the only thing that made sense to him, tell his robot to "destroy" his source of pain. GoGo did not like his loss of control, but she felt it was more important to let him know that they would always be there to help him, to guide him.

Realizing just how much she was thinking about Hiro again, she squinted her eyes in an effort to clear her thoughts. She swiped through the windows on her lap top, wondering briefly where to find affordable studio apartments, but finally pausing to read the latest update on the headlining news. There would definitely be a lot more changes and rumors rippling through the school come the following week once it gets out that Callaghan was alive.

GoGo paused, then tapped a specific article to open it. There was one particular concern her group had about him. Even though they hoped to keep this superhero gig a secret, their antagonist knew everything about them, about Baymax, and all their upgrades. Would Callaghan reveal their identities to the authoritie? From what the news had reported so far, he had said nothing about them or Hiro. That was perfectly fine by her, as she especially did not want to have anything to do with the police, anymore.

However, she did become more aware of a security guard making the rounds there. She saw him in the hallway on her way out a couple of hours ago as well. That was new.

Everything in general was catching up with her. The fatigue was building in her body and a stress headache loomed. She rested her head in her hand, tapping at the touch screen, to look at existing designs on maglev propulsion systems. The lack of sleep was getting the better of her, and GoGo had been dozing off briefly. It took her a few minutes to finally will herself to wake up enough and move over to the old armchair for a nap.

"It's on the second floor, but it's a shortcut if you go through this lab."

That voice worked like a shot of pure adrenaline to her system. GoGo yawned to shake off the fatquie, and turned around to see Hiro carrying a big box followed by Aunt Cass with a hand cart loaded with more document boxes.

"Hey," she called out to them. She was a little surprised to see Hiro here already. Wait, How did they get in?

"Hi." Hiro just kept walking, but Aunt Cass at least paused to greet her.

"You guys have a key card?" GoGo had to ask. She did know the lab Tadashi had needed one, and well, she rather save them the trip if they didn't have it.

"Yep," Hiro now stopped to rest his box on the work table. He held up his brother's key card that he had found.

"It still works?" GoGo raised and eyebrow, popping her gum.

"That surprised me too! But Hiro wanted to try it since we were here." Aunt Cass agreed. "I'm sure that will change after tomorrow."

She shook her head. More suspicions about this place formed in her mind.

They had departed, leaving her with her own thoughts again. Sleep was futile at this point. She sat back down at her laptop to bring up her maglev designs. It didn't seem that much time had passed when she became acutely aware of someone looking over her shoulder.

"I told you, it needs more thrust," Hiro pointed at the pedal area on the bicycle schematics. "The wheels are as good as they're gonna get."

"Yes," GoGo turned to glare at him as she popped a bubble. "Now.. get lost."

"Thought about using something like a flywheel?" the boy genius did not let her attitude phase him as he continued toward the door.

It wasn't that she didn't like his help, she just wished she thought of these things first. _A flywheel... Kinetic energy build-up, of course. Damn him._ __  
  
A few more minutes passed before the two of them appeared again with more boxes. She was more ready for any further interactions, but none were made that time.

The minutes that passed this time was longer before she heard someone walking through the lab. It was just Aunt Cass by herself, pushing the hand cart. "Hey, I'll be heading out then. See you tomorrow!"

GoGo just waved. She noticed she wasn't followed by another this time.

Apparently Hiro decided to stay behind. That would have been okay if he was cleared to be there. But knowing that he got in with a key card of someone who was, well, no longer a student due to unlikely circumstance, that may be a problem.

GoGo popped her gum. Someone had to warn him about the security guard.

* * *

The door to the lab was open, and she slid through it quietly to see Hiro at the desk to the left. He was standing in front of the big holographic monitor, apparently trying to get past the log-in screen on the computer.

GoGo crossed her arms and popped a bubble very loudly.

Hiro visibly jumped, complete with an expletive statement.

"You'll have to be registered first to get access on the network," she told him rather matter of factly.

"Yeah, it's -" he turned to face her, the shock still evident on his face.

"I wouldn't recommend trying to hack into it, if that's what you were doing." She stepped closer, her hard gaze still on him.

"No! No, I'm not trying to..." He laughed nervously, stepping back against the desk. "When do the offices open?"

"Tomorrow morning at 9." GoGo popped her gum. "But if you're looking for Tadashi's files, you're not going to find them there, or on the servers."

Hiro's brow furrowed. "Then, where are they?"

"They probably became property of SFIT."

Just as soon as those words left her mouth, Hiro's eyes narrowed in anger. "They.. What? Why would they do that?!" He all but shouted, before turning away from her to walk aimlessly toward the round window in disgust.

"Hiro," GoGo sighed, not exactly expecting that reaction from him. So much for telling him about the guard. "Hey, look, it's okay. Ask about it tomorrow. Maybe with Aunt Cass's permission, you can get them back."

Hiro stopped and looked at her for a moment before turning away to look at nothing in particular. He appeared to be calming down, at least.

"Not having any luck, I take it," she stepped forward, softening her tone.

"Not really," he leaned on the edge of one of the small cabinets and crossed his arms.

GoGo nodded, not saying anything. She looked at the assortment of boxes to her right before walking closer to Hiro. Change of topic might help. "Did you see the news this morning?"

"Uhm, no."

"Callaghan's keeping his lips sealed about us. He's keeping our involvement secret now."

"Yeah. It was really between him and Krei all along."

"But don't you get it? It was because we, you, saved his daughter," she pointed to him, emphasizing his act of goodwill.

"His way of saying 'thank you'..?" Hiro asked, raising his eyebrow. "Even after he was trying to _kill_ us before?"

GoGo nodded, crossing her arms. "The discovery that Abigail was still alive changed _everything_."

He was silent again, before asking a different question. "What about the explosion at the Expo, are they reopening the investigation on that too?"

"It's being reviewed as a felony, for obvious reasons."

Hiro just rubbed his face, then shook his head. "So he hoped scaring the crap out of us would make us leave him alone? What if ... What if I did not find out what he was doing with the other microbots?"

She let him talk, and watched him pace.

"If Callaghan succeeded at killing Krei, how would've that played out? Callaghan faked his death to become Yokai, and stole my microbots! Not to mention my brother dying for nothing-"

"You think he was planning to frame... you?" GoGo suddenly felt blindsided by that revelation. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"

"It's not exactly like that, just..." Hiro looked at her, making eye contact. "Why else were the cops were questioning me yesterday."

"Look," she gripped his shoulder, "Fortunately, you were on top of it, and we stopped him before he could, okay?"

He just nodded, swallowing.

A knock was heard on the open door, immediately grabbing their attention. "Excuse me, sir, ma'am. I need to ask you to step outside of this lab." He walked to the two of them with the intent to usher them out.

"I'm sorry, he's with me," GoGo showed the guard her badge.

"This lab is off limits to all students. How did you gain access?" He all but pushed them out of the door. Hiro was quick to grab some of his things as they were led out.

"He had his brother's badge," GoGo continued, since Hiro hadn't made an effort to explain himself.

With that, he had no choice. "I'm Hiro Hamada. Tadashi's brother." He held up his badge. Too bad they didn't really look alike.

The security guard took the badge, looking at it once more before pocketing it.

"Where is your ID card?"

"I... don't have one. Yet." He was looking nervous again.

"Look, sir, Hiro's starting tomorrow, so he was just getting set up. Okay?" GoGo stepped up to the officer.

"He looks awful young to be a college kid," the guard frowned.

"Show him your state ID," GoGo growled to Hiro, hoping at least it would prove he wasn't some punk kid off the streets.

He did so, quickly, giving it to the guard.

"He's still really young."

It took everything she had to keep from face-palming her forehead, and/or knocking some sense into this rent-a-cop.

"If I may take the time to educate you... Hiro is Tadashi's little brother, a kid genius, and had won a full scholarship last July to attend here. When you go back to check your records, the facts will all be there."

The guard just blinked, and was otherwise rendered speechless by her little outburst. As long as they were not in places they were not supposed to be, his job was done. "Well, okay then. So be it."

Gogo just nodded.

"Make sure to get your own badge tomorrow." He added, trying to regain some of his dignity back.

"Yes, sir," Hiro responded.

The guard followed them as they went to the elevator, then continued down a different hall.

"You seriously need to work on your ninja skills," GoGo told him, once they were inside the elevator.

"Thanks, anyway."

"Yeah. Whatevers." She said, her eyes on the doors. But with her peripheral vision, she noticed his gaze going down to her backside. GoGo was accustomed to his from other guys on campus, and after one of her looks, they also knew not to mess with her. But this, this was a surprise.

She popped her gum, facing him. "Did you just check me out?"

"Wha- no! I- I was noticing that you had the same clothes on from yesterday! Really!" He nervously explained, waving his hands in the air. The boy appeared as if he was going to melt from embarrassment right in front of her.

Gogo held his shaky gaze for a second longer. The elevator stopped and the doors opened.

"Right," She popped her gum, stepping out first. "Just haven't had time to do laundry, after all that Yokai bull crap."

"Sorry," he tried to apologize, on both accounts.

"Don't do it again." GoGo told him firmly, but she kept her eyes forward down the hall. Since when did he start caring about what she wore? He practically wore the same hoodie jacket and cargos everyday. She was just not ready to imagine that Hiro had started crushing on her. All she intended to do for him was to offer guidance.

When they reached her lab, she glanced over her shoulder. "Taking the bus home?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, bye," she walked into her lab area, leaving him out in the hallway.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this chapter was also a lot of fun to piece together, for obvious reasons!
> 
> Some details from the journals are things inspired from what my Korean husband has said to my kids (the only difference is that he is still alive, but is not a doctor). My son when he was three DID take all the keys off his dad's laptop, but I added an additional 'Hiro touch' for this fic. *snrk*
> 
> The plane crash... I also was inspired by the Malaysia flights. I do offer my most sincere condolences to anyone who had been affected, however. I decided to go with a plane crash, over a car crash or a big house fire, just because it was different. I chose those flights due to the mystery level of how they vanished / crashed.


	5. Indomitable Spirit

_"You're made of metal, but you have feelings… and you think about things, and that means you have a soul._

_And souls don't die." Hogarth, The Iron Giant_

 

It was Aunt Cass's voice calling to Hiro up the stairs that finally had awakened him.

 _Wait. Is it… 9 o'clock?!_ He thought he had set the alarm, or did he turn it off by accident?

"Just letting you know your friends are waiting for you in the cafe!" She called again.

 _Friends…? Scrap!_ Hiro jumped out of bed to change his clothes as fast as he could, and pulled on his new blue SFIT hoodie. It also occurred to him it was a couple days already since he last taken a shower. Hopefully they wouldn't notice, because he had no time now.

He did stop halfway down the stairs, only to run back up them to the bathroom. Maybe he should at least brush his teeth and wash his face first.

His nerves got to him at that point, when Hiro started to think about everything that had gone wrong yesterday. If GoGo's suspicious behavior wasn't one thing, the close call he had from using his brother's ID presented another problem. The only security that guard provided him was knowing that the odds of the lab spontaneously exploding was greatly reduced. But this was just one of his many concerns.

 _College is not like high school, it's not._ Hiro told himself one more time as he spit out some toothpaste. For starters, college was at least full of people who _wanted_ to be there. He really didn't like high school for the fact that everyone there had so many issues. What was it about becoming a teenager that turned a lot of people into jerks? Seriously, all he did was do what everyone expected of him, and they still wanted to turn him into sashimi. If it wasn't for Tadashi to keep him going, he probably would have given up on this idea of 'school' a long time ago.

Hiro washed his face, dried off, then decided to swipe some deodorant, just in case. He really tried to not dwell too long on that awkward conversation with GoGo in the elevator. Little did she realize that was one of the things he got picked on about in high school. Those teens acted like he knew nothing about that stuff, but he did, at the ripe young age of ten. His brother had no choice but to give him the whole nine-yards about sex-ed just because he didn't want Hiro to find out the wrong way. Needless to say, it really bugged Hiro when Baymax had started to describe in great detail everything about puberty, like that was going to be a sick joke that Tadashi had planned to pull on him.

But with GoGo, Hiro felt more confused about her than before. He did kind of like her, not just because she also researched magnetics and had this cool biker style. It was the way she was always there to keep his head on straight when he needed it most, that really meant something.

Because even before that, GoGo and Honey Lemon didn't seem at all bothered when he _had_ to consider their cup sizes and stuff when making their super suits. Then yesterday, he just absent-mindedly glanced at her well-toned legs and she chewed him out. How was he supposed to know how to act around her, if he wasn't sure what she really thought about him?

Hiro went down a couple steps again, somewhat caught up in his thoughts, when realized he had forgotten something else. "Geez... backpack!"

He now dashed back down both flights of stairs, and burst through the doors at the back corner of the cafe. The group of four was sitting at the table, finishing their coffee when Hiro spotted them.

"Hey," he waved, giving everyone a small smile.

"Awesome, he's here!"

Wasabi stood up and greeted him by messing up his hair, some more.

"Let's go!"

"This is so exciting," Honey Lemon put her hand on his shoulder as they walked out.

"Yeah," Hiro glanced up, still not used to her height when she was next to him like that. Then he caught a glimpse of Aunt Cass behind him and waited for her.

"Hey sweetie, have a great day," Aunt Cass handed him his lunch bag, which he took, along with a hug.

Hiro stepped back as if he was going to leave, but before she had the chance to get the coffee cups that were left on the table, he hugged his favorite Aunt again, this time a little more tightly. "One more."

This gesture was the least Hiro could do to show how much he appreciated her efforts from the last couple of days. And that she also shouldn't be taken for granted. His aunt smiled at him warmly, and then let him catch up with the others.

* * *

The group of five sat in the mid-section of the bus where the seats faced each other, like in a subway car. This time, all of them agreed to make a special trip together to meet with him at the Lucky Cat Cafe, to make sure he started off on the right foot, per say. Naturally, one of their conversations gravitated towards the status of Wasabi's van. He had submitted the claim with the intent of totaling it, but the whole nature of the accident was not an easy one to process. Fred also added that Heathcliff would only provide transportation for emergency situations. Getting to class did not qualify as such. So they had no choice but to fall back on good ol public transportation for a while.

Hiro was quietly bothered by the fact that GoGo sat on the bench right across from him. Yet, sitting next to him could have been possibly worse, but with her right across, he had to make more of a conscious effort to not look at her, below the shoulder-line or above her knees. Thankfully, Wasabi, who had been standing in the isle-way (because crowds in public transportation made him nervous), had moved down so he blocked GoGo from Hiro's line of vision.

Honey Lemon, however, did sit next to him, which somehow also made him more self-conscious. It was going to be awhile before the realization that she was Tadashi's really close girlfriend slid back to the recesses of his mind. Of course, that helped explain why she had been so concerned about him, like a big sister. But the way she stayed so strong through it all impressed him now.

The tall blonde had noticed his pensive silence and gave him a nudge. "Do you know where the Registrar's office is, Hiro?"

"Yeah, it's the building on Osaka and 3rd?" He remembered roughly the lay out of the campus.

"Not exactly," she shook her head. "That one is the Student Union. The Registrar's office is in the old temple style building on the other side."

"Yeah, the Student Union has a lot of other stuff, like where you get your Student ID's, free bus passes, laptop rentals—" Fred piped in.

"Wait, I thought you weren't a student." Hiro had stopped him.

"Not a SFIT student," he stressed. "But this fall, I enrolled at thee U of San Fransokyo. English lit is my specialty."

"If you want to call comic books, _literature,_ " GoGo jabbed.

"If you can find it in the library, it's literature." Fred refuted, with a nod.

"I guess that means... congratulations?" Hiro told him, somewhat surprised by this.

"You inspired me, dude," he jabbed the boy, whole-heartedly. But then he leaned over, whispering, "And it's also because the change in security meant I couldn't get into the labs."

"Yo, guys, our stop is next," Wasabi alerted them.

They poured out onto the sidewalk by the bus stop located on the east side of campus. This was the closest location that particular bus route would get them to where they wanted to be. They didn't mind since the weather was also very nice. Honey Lemon suggested it was a good way to tour the campus too. Hiro still wondered in the back of his mind if they were actually baby-sitting him, if not trying to keep him away from certain places on purpose. He still remembered the layout of the campus, and knew where the convention center was. The likely-hood of him happening across the area it was located, by accident, was slim.

After a brief rundown of which direction to go for what place, they began to discuss where to meet for lunch afterwards. A couple of the others did have morning classes to attend as well.

"Kyoto Kafe is the best spot," Wasabi explained. "There is a food court at the Student Union, but I like the food better at the Kafe."

"Plus they don't care if you bring your own food to eat there." GoGo added.

"Kyoto Kafe it is!" Honey Lemon confirmed. "At 12:30?"

"Works for me."

"Oh, yes.. Hiro?" Honey snapped her fingers, just remembering something. "Do you have a phone, in case we need to reach you? I can give you my number."

"No, I don't," he made a face, shaking his head. He briefly thought about their comm links, but then that would mean having to find the helmets from their supersuits and somehow pulling the devices out from the helmets to carry somewhere else (provided that it did not get too far out of range) and well, that didn't sound like something they could do right now.

"Do you have something else?" Honey Lemon wondered.

"It's.. kind of complicated," Hiro wasn't sure where to begin his story, at this point.

"How..?" GoGo had to ask.

"Well... okay, about a year ago, I was tinkering with the cell phone Aunt Cass gave me, to use for just calling her or Tadashi... like for emergencies. I was trying to develop an app that made the phone work like a walkie-talkie."

"Don't they already have apps like that?" Honey Lemon wondered.

"Yeah, but I wanted it to be able to work without needing a wifi connection." Hiro explained further.

"Let me guess," GoGo stated flatly. "It backfired."

"Exactly..." He looked down at the sidewalk, hands in his pockets. "I kind of messed up my phone, which did something to how the rates were charged, and... Aunt Cass got a phone bill.. which was over a thousand dollars."

"Get out of here!" GoGo practically shoved him aside in disbelief.

"Oh my god, really?" Honey Lemon was just as surprised, but smiling in some amusement.

"I paid her back! ...eventually," Hiro refuted quickly. "But yeah, she took away my phone privileges after that."

"I hope our comm links are legit," Wasabi spoke up, now thinking about that bit of tech.

"They are. The comm links just use regular radio wave frequencies."

"Oh man, that reminds me," Fred mused, turning to face them. "Remember when Baymax called all of us that first time?"

"How could not I forget," Wasabi countered.

"I tried to stop Baymax from contacting you guys," Hiro sighed, only to smile uncomfortably after realizing what he said. "But I guess that wasn't a bad idea after all."

GoGo shot Fred a harsh glare, knowing full where this was going to go, and that hopefully it wouldn't annoy Hiro.

"Yeah, the caller ID showed Tadashi's name, and what made it more creepy was that we all received the call at the exact same time!" Fred at least kept from saying what they all had thought at the time, that it was a haunting from Tadashi's ghost. "Or should I say, I found out they all got that call too after I got to the Lab to tell them about it."

"GoGo actually had the guts to answer her cell," Wasabi explained, hopefully with a little more tact for Hiro. "But then she told us it was a recorded message from Baymax, to come and meet with you."

"Which was still creep- ow!" GoGo jabbed Fred this time, since he was next to her now.

"We first wondered if it might have been a glitch, but when we got a second call about a change in coordinates to meet at, then we knew it had to be real." Honey also explained.

"I think what Fred is getting at, is that Baymax had smartphone tech built into him," GoGo finally decided to get to the point of this mildly awkward conversation.

"Yes, actually!" He agreed.

"Yeah... I remember that.. Tadashi asked later if he could get an additional phone at that time. But instead, Aunt Cass traded in mine for a new one for him to have, so he was able to use his old phone for Baymax. He probably succeeded at what I was trying to do with the functions." Hiro really did not know about that part of it, he just remembered reading Tadashi's journal report on that design element yesterday. But he stretched the truth for their sake right now.

They were quiet for a few steps more before Hiro remembered the original question that started this whole conversation. "Yeah... I did bring my tablet though, so I can text you guys."

"That'll work too."

"Here's my number," Honey said, looking through her purse for a pen and notepad.

* * *

After the initial registration, Hiro was told he needed to meet with an advisor to help him with the selection of his major and the classes he needed to start with. He did not recognize the new advisor, and assumed she was probably new, due to various given reasons that he did not need an explanation for. There was some concern again about his age since he did not have a legal guardian present at the time, but since he did receive a scholarship, the immediate concern of financial responsibility was something to be addressed later when Aunt Cass was able to come at a later time. The session with his advisor became another reality check of sorts, and fortunately he was still able to choose classes that were manageable for that semester. She said the program curriculum was undergoing some changes too, but she did not freely explain why.

Upon explaining his initial motive to take over the Baymax project, the advisor had to gently explain to him that plan was a great idea, but since it was a nearly completed project, it could not be used for his thesis capstone. Hiro would still need to come up with an idea of his own, from scratch. Since that suggestion initiated further confusion, again, she had to clarify that he can and was welcome to continue what Tadashi started, but he also had to develop a project of his own. At this point, she offered a few more suggestions on the types of projects other students have done to help him understand the purpose and goal of a capstone thesis for his degree in robotics engineering.

Even though the woman appeared to be new to this school, she at least had the patience to answer any other concerns he had, which had helped boost his confidence again. He didn't want to say it, but it had left him wondering what SFIT would be like now that Callaghan was no longer in charge.

With his new ID badge in hand, Hiro still had some time before he was to meet with the others. Since he did need some time to think, he was okay with arriving at the Kafe early. He had toyed with the thought of swinging by the lab, but there really wasn't enough time. He also made a mental note to bring his skateboard next time, just because there would be so much time lost if he just walked everywhere on campus.

After entering the Kyoto Kafe, Hiro surveyed the large seating area before settling on a round table with a curved bench seat in one corner. Once settled, he pulled out his white tablet to look at his new class schedule again that was emailed to him. Hiro could start into his afternoon classes today, if he wanted. But he felt it would just be better to start everything from the beginning tomorrow. He still wanted to get some stuff unpacked in his lab first after lunch, now that he can.

Hiro pulled out his own battered scientific notebook journal to look at, the kind with actual paper pages and written in with a black ink pen. Clearly being a fan of these things, Tadashi had given the empty journal to him over the summer, for Hiro to record the progress of his microbots. The reason being is that it was good planning to have both the paper trail as well as the digital formats, just because 'you never know'. Hiro had brought the journal as proof for the advisor that the microbots were his, in case there was any question about how he won the scholarship.

Just looking at it still made him feel guilt and disgust about the microbots, however. Again, that question haunted him: If he never invented the microbots, resulting in Callaghan to stealing them, would his brother still be alive?

Hiro stared at the journal a second or two longer before he stashed it back inside his backpack. He really did not need to look at that for reference anyway, if all it was going to do was drag him backwards again. He was doing his best to remember his promise that set him apart, the difference that made him a hero. Heroes save lives. The news reports also reminded him that Callaghan acknowledged this now. He chose to keep them out of it, and did not publicize who they were. The act of forgiveness was still a bitter pill to swallow sometimes, but it was the only way if he was to move forward.

The new robotics engineer sighed, before pulling out his next journal notebook and Tadashi's first scientific journal for Baymax. He finally found those in a box down in the garage last night.

The list of materials needed to build Baymax alone was massive, and that did not include the supplies and non-prescription medicines needed to equip the robot. He flipped through more of the pages, the schematics, and hand drawn notes about design details. He would have to ask around on how to go about getting this stuff again.

Hiro pushed that aside, as his greater drive was to start collaborating new designs for the idea he had for his own project. He picked up the new, empty journal, and opened it.

On the inside cover of his journal, and the very top, he wrote "In memory of my brother, Tadashi Hamada." Then below he wrote at the bottom edge, "Rule 2: Hamada brothers never give up on each other." After a couple more moments of thought, in the center where a printed box was, he wrote "Geronimo" as the project name, and for the subject, "search and rescue robots", followed with that day's date.

This was the most amazing idea that occurred to him on his walk over to Kafe, and he had started grinning from ear to ear from just how crazy awesome of an idea it was. With this new project, he hoped it would also help save the lives of so many more people. Fireproof robots, like fire fighters or the EMS, that is durable and strong enough to go into burning buildings, wreckage from earthquakes, or underwater situations. It was quite possibility the best idea he ever had, and he was certain it would be greatly accepted. Except this time, he was a little more hesitant about letting others know so soon.

"Hey."

Hiro heard GoGo's voice greet him, otherwise giving him a start, and he quickly closed the cover of his journal. She seemed to do that to him a lot lately.

She slid into the other side of the table, popping her gum. "How'd it go?"

"Okay, I guess," Hiro stacked the two journals together, keeping his eyes down on them and the table space in front of him.

"Were you able to get access to Tadashi's files from the server?" GoGo asked next, remembering their conversation yesterday. She had set her protein shake tumbler on the table, with a red ramen noodle bowl that had bold black Korean letters on it.

"No," Hiro sighed. "Aunt Cass has to come later to sign and release them."

She nodded. "You got your own ID though," she added, looking at the badge he left on the table.

"Yeah," he picked it up, remembering now to tuck it in his backpack so it didn't get lost.

"What does the R said for?" For some reason that question threw him off guard. She was referring to the initial for his middle name that she saw on his badge.

Hiro glanced at GoGo, making eye contact with her for the first time since she sat down. "Um, Ryan."

"Suits you," GoGo nodded, the slightest hint of a smile now playing at the corners of her mouth. "Way better than my American name."

He shrugged, then hesitated before he dared to ask, "Which is?"

GoGo she popped her gum, leaning forward to emphasize the point. "If I told you, then I would have to kill you."

"It's that bad?" Hiro couldn't help but smirk. He was sensing more of her openness, which in turn made him feel more comfortable with her again.

"Yep... Something the orphanage gave me, which kind of added insult to injury." She sat back and peeled the cover on the spicy ramen noodle bowl the rest of the way off. GoGo had already nuked it earlier, so it was ready to eat now. She broke apart her wooden set of chopsticks to stir them up.

"I guess that's why you like your nickname more," Hiro confirmed.

GoGo shrugged, now putting her wad of gum on top of her tumbler, but her gaze shifted to someone else approaching the table.

"Hey, hey guys!" Fred greeted them, sliding in next to Hiro, otherwise causing him scoot further into the booth with his backpack.

"Hey, yo." GoGo nodded.

"How'sit going?" Fred nudged Hiro, right next to him. "Which major did you sign-up for?"

"Robotics Engineering, of course," Hiro just looked at him coolly.

"You had to ask?" GoGo looked to Fred, almost in disbelief.

"Well, you'll never know..." He shrugged, opening up a bag of nacho flavored chips that he had.

"I was this close to going with Forensic Science," Hiro added, giving them a teasing smile. "Only because."

"Ooooh, that would have been cool too if you did!" Fred also agreed.

"But that doesn't mean I couldn't do a CSI angle on the robotics," Hiro looked up, twisting his mouth in thought.

"Hah! Yesh! Except... Robocop's already been done, right?" He crunched on a chip.

"Yup... but that's not what I want to do," Hiro nodded.

"Did they let you have Tadashi's lab also?" GoGo stopped slurping noodles for a moment. She had been glancing at the journal for Baymax that he had stacked on top.

"Yes," Hiro looked down at the journals too. "At least that was the only thing going my way. They'll let me continue with Baymax, but... I still need to come up with my own project for my capstone."

"Figures," GoGo clicked her tongue.

"But... as a Hamada brother, I never back down from a challenge." Hiro countered, that knowing look evident to them in his eyes.

"Hi guys!" Honey Lemon greeted them as she and Wasabi approached the round table. She set her tray down, on GoGo's side, thus encouraging the speedster to slide in closer to Hiro, to make room for the two. At this point, Hiro was deeply grateful for his backpack that separated the space between him and her.

"All's good?" Wasabi scooted his tray over to take his drink and bowl of udon noodles off of it.

"Yeah," Hiro answered automatically. He also remembered now to pull out his nearly squished brown lunch bag from his backpack.

"Got any classes this afternoon?" Honey asked next.

"I do, but I decided wait until tomorrow to go to them." Hiro took out a sub sandwich, a bag of chips, a can of pop, and then a small bag of gummy bears. "Uhm," he smiled modestly, pushing the gummy bears back into the paper bag. "I wanted to finish unpacking the lab today."

"You got the lab, Hiro?" Honey glowed with excitement.

"Yup."

"Right on!" Wasabi also congratulated him. "We figured that you would."

"Which classes did you get?" Honey asked next as she squeezed a packet of dressing on her salad.

"A lot of the classes were full already, so she gave me the permission to take a couple classes that should be taken after the introductory classes, but I told her that shouldn't be a problem." Hiro attempted to take a bite from his sub.

"Such as 'Physics and Function 201'?" asked Honey Lemon. "I am in that one this semester."

"I think. There was another one about hydraulics, and mathematical algorithms for AI programming." He knew that many of the others were second and third year students with different angles on their studies, so the chances of also being in any classes with them were slim.

Honey nodded, as she started on her salad.

"I also wanted to sign up for Chinese as my language requirement, but it was at the same time as my required classes for the next few semesters." Hiro explained, pausing to drink some pop. "But the only class still open this semester was Japanese 101."

GoGo snorted.

Honey also laughed a little. "Is that a language you know how to speak already?"

"Kind of, except I couldn't carry on a conversation if I had too," he tried to suppress a belch.

"Is it the one with Dr. Harada, at 4 o'clock?" Gogo asked him.

"Um, yeah."

"I'm in that class..." She said, almost at a whisper.

"Really?" Hiro had to remember to not let his jaw hang open in surprise. "I mean, I'm glad to know I'm not the only loser."

GoGo turned to face him, narrowing her eyes and leveled her fist within his line of vision. _"What_ are you implying?"

"That I am the loser." Hiro promptly answered, feigning innocence as he smiled nervously. His eyes shifted their focus between her fist and her eyes, gauging if that was actually bluff or not.

She just glowered a second longer before turning away from Hiro.

"Ooo..." Wasabi breathed, in response.

"You... have guts.. my friend," Fred whispered to Hiro, as he sucked the cheese powder off his fingers.

 _Checkmate_. Hiro thought mentally as he took a big bite from his sub. The others wisely ate in silence for a moment after that little exchange. What could he say? If GoGo was going to mess with him, why couldn't he do the same?

"Oh yeah, are we still doing the Scientific Research Club again this year?" Fred asked no one in particular.

Honey Lemon pursed her lips in thought before saying anything about that. Wasabi scratched his head as he also exchanged some glances.

Fred just noticed Hiro's confused expression about this. "Oh wait... no one told you about the club?"

"Not really," Hiro shook his head. He could only assume now by the way they were squirming again was that Tadashi must have been the club president. That made sense now, how out of all the other people in the lab, that this motley crew of students were drawn together. "But I imagined you guys were part of something."

"Well..." Honey started, setting her fork down. She lowered her voice, looking over to Hiro. "Are we still going to be a super hero team?"

Hiro blinked, remembering when that proposal came up the other night, and it was never really confirmed. But now, now it was apparent they all looked to him to make the final call. Since he had been the one to assemble them, they also saw him as their new leader. This was a new kind of responsibility that actually kind of scared him, because it was a role that he was not yet accustomed too. A new challenge he had yet to tackle.

"I vote that we should!" Fred clapped his hand on Hiro's back in an attempt to encourage him.

"Okay, okay," Hiro held his hands out, as if to freeze their thoughts. "We're on."

"Yes!" Fred cheered.

"Great! Then maybe we can do this instead." Honey gave her explanation. "If that is okay with everyone?"

"Fine with me," GoGo shrugged, smiling knowingly.

"Although... how are we going to hold the meetings, and train?" Wasabi decided to address more important details.

"Compadres, you are all welcome to keep coming to my place!" Fred smiled. He was still quite giddy knowing that this was for real now.

"The physical education classes here are lame, and so is the gym." GoGo added her two cents on the training proposal. "It'll be better if we develop our own training routine. I can help you guys with that."

"I just want to say, I don't like running much," Honey confessed, despite the chance of irking GoGo.

"I know some strength training routines," Wasabi added, in between bites.

"Yes, we do need to plan something to help build up our strength and reaction time." GoGo agreed.

"Maybe… we can use my garage too," Hiro spoke up. More ideas of his own were starting to come to him the longer they thought about it. "I can clean it up and turn it into a workout area, for like hand-to-hand combat or crossfit stuff."

"Hey, that could work!" Wasabi liked where that was going.

"And then we can still go to Fred's for supersuit training, since he's got such a big, yard in a secluded location." Hiro explained.

"So like on one day we meet at your garage, and then another time, we meet at Fred's?" Honey confirmed.

"Something like that."

"Okay, we just need to check our schedules this semester to find some free time." Honey advised the others, now looking at the calendar on her phone.

"Sure. We can pick some days, like by this time tomorrow?" Hiro wondered, munching on a chip.

"Or maybe we can text each other," Honey added. "Today we were able to meet together this time, but tomorrow I have to work off campus at this time."

"Whatever works," Hiro shrugged.

"We don't have to rush into this, this week, do we?" Wasabi wondered too. "I need some time to look at training routines we can use too, right?"

"Well, of course," GoGo said, finishing the last of her noodles.

"I did also have these ideas to upgrade my own super suit," Hiro decided to tell them, since it was related to the topic. "So this will be a fun way to test it out!"

"Ironman armor?" Fred had to ask.

"Um, no." Hiro pressed his lips together for a moment. "But it's close, kind of. I realized I can use the magnets I have in my suit… add electromagnetic chargers, like what I put into GogGo's suit, and then I can create pulse blasts from my gloves, or a big magnetic field from all four combined."

"Wow."

"This came to me last night, just because Baymax is gonna take a lot longer than I thought to rebuild." He crumbled up the wrapper from his sub, and picked up another chip.

"Game on," GoGo just looked at him, acting as though she was not as impressed by this new unspoken challenge he set before them.

* * *

It was a weird new reality yesterday when he walked into Tadashi's lab, but today, now it was officially his. But in his mind, he rather think of it as the Hamada Lab, only because Tadashi had said something about them sharing it after Hiro was accepted.

A part of him felt he didn't deserve to have a lab as nice as this one all to himself now, especially when the others had to share the larger lab areas. But from what Hiro understood of the complexity of Baymax, this lab must have been for the safety of the others. One thought of the pressurized systems failing, resulting in sharp needles and questionable fluids exploding all over the place, was probably enough reason. Hiro found himself smiling imagining that, despite the very scary thought of projectile hypodermic needles. He absolutely hated needles.

Hiro dropped his backpack by the computer desk, and decided to attack the boxes that were stacked in the middle of the room first. He moved the smaller box with office supplies over to the desk. Inside that one, he took out Tadashi's SF baseball cap and looked at it for a moment. Baymax was right... his brother was always there, in spirit. Just as long as he remembered him. Hiro hung the hat on an old desk lamp that he doubted he would ever use.

The hat made him think of Baymax's rocket fist. He did not want to say it, or make the direct connection, just because the idea still sounded crazy... but maybe there really was truth from all the Japanese folklore stories he heard when he was growing up. The soul of a great warrior would also live on in the owner's sword, since the weapon was an extension of the warrior.

Hiro opened the flaps on the big box, taking a moment to look at the shiny red fist, like it was Baymax's extension of himself, his metaphysical sword. With a sigh, he hefted the heavy fist into his arms to set it up on a counter. It was his visible reminder that he'll rebuild his best healthcare companion. The fingers were still retracted inwards also, looking like a tight fist.

 _You'll be back._ Hiro smiled faintly as he fist-bumped with the rocket fist. Then something green caught his eye as he stepped away. The boy quickly stepped closer, prying apart the large fingers.

 _No way... No! Way!_ Hiro's jaw dropped when he pulled Tadashi's chip out of the fist. Baymax was Tadashi's sword; there was no doubt about it now. How else could he explain this? He could only guess that there was core robotic programming that existed no matter which chip was installed, but it still left him wondering how Baymax would know how to send off the chip with the rocket fist.

Instead, Hiro was just hit full force with the most insanely awesome happiness he ever felt. Before he knew it, he was running through the hallway, using the stairs rather than the elevator, to get to the first floor labs.

"Oh my god! _Look_!" Hiro nearly ran headlong into Honey Lemon by accident, as he was completely beside himself with happy.

"Wait, what is it?" She exclaimed in surprise. Fortunately she wasn't carrying anything volatile in an open container, because it would have ended up exploding everywhere. Then she saw what he was waving around. "Oh my gosh— Hiro! It's Tadashi's chip!"

"Yes! I found—" Hiro shouted, only to be cut short by a sudden hug from Honey.

"What the what?" Wasabi and GoGo finally came over to see what the commotion was about.

"The chip... Baymax gave me the chip!" Hiro tried to explain, once Honey released him. "I found it in the fist of th—"

And again, he was cut short by another spontaneous group hug by everyone but Fred, only because he wasn't there.

"I can't believe it!" Honey chimed in again, practically in tears as she leaned her head on top of Hiro's.

"That is just _awesome_ ," Wasabi added, from the outside perimeter of the hug.

Hiro's eyes started welling up, so overcome with emotion and their support. Even more embarrassing was that he realized GoGo was right there, seeing him get all emotional again. "I'm _not_ crying... just.. tears of joy," he whispered, despite his strained voice, quickly wiping them off his cheeks.

"S'kay," GoGo whispered back, "You've been through a lot."

"We all have," Honey sobbed a little.

"Like I'm not hugging you," GoGo pulled her arm that she had around Honey so she could give Hiro a bear hug so tight he couldn't breathe.

 _Okay, crying for a whole different reason now, ow,_ Hiro gasped. The four broke apart before they started to attract unwanted attention from the other students in the lab. He bend down for a moment, hands on knees to catch his breath.

As he straightened up, Wasabi patted Hiro on the back before going back to his lab.

"Way to go! You made Hiro cry," GoGo teased Honey Lemon, prodding the taller girl on the arm. "Need a tissue?"

Honey shook her head, laughing a little at herself too now. She took off her glasses to carefully wipe the wetness from her cheeks. "I'll just go to the bathroom to touch up."

"Wasn't crying," Hiro still resisted that idea, even though he had just wiped his face with the back of his hand again.

"Then you better get that leaky malfunction fixed before you dehydrate," GoGo punched him in the shoulder.

Hiro just snorted, walking backwards a few steps as he looked down at the green and white chip, running a thumb over the black letters of his brother's name. The rest of Baymax should be easy for him to duplicate now, since all the original programming was right here. Or at least, he hoped it wasn't going to take him as long as it had for Tadashi. "Going back upstairs," he just said, before turning to leave.

"We'll be going to our classes, so.. see you tomorrow!" Honey called after him, whether or not he actually heard her.

* * *

It was really kind of early the next morning, but that was also because Hiro's first class started at 8:30 in the morning. Naturally, if he was up that early then Aunt Cass took every advantage to use him to help her open up shop. She had found out at this point for as long as Hiro had a carrot dangling in front to bait him, it was a lot easier for her to ask him to do things. Her ultimate motive was to teach him how to be more responsible with this, as she had done with Tadashi when he had been Hiro's age. But she also wanted to help him out, in a more legal way, with his cash flow. Thus, she had given him a new list of chores that he could do anytime at night or in the morning when the Café was closed. If they were completed by the next day, Aunt Cass agreed to give him twenty bucks for each day.

Hiro's dark hair was still damp from the shower, as he had wasted no time getting the chore list done that morning. "Okay, cleaned the fingerprints from the front doors, wiped down the front counter and the pastry cases, swept the floor, made sure the trashcans were empty, and the bathrooms still look clean," he told Aunt Cass, giving her the clipboard.

"The bathrooms _look_ clean?" She caught his last statement.

"Um, yeah." Hiro swept his long bangs out of his eyes again. "I cleaned the toilets last night."

"I'll be the judge of that," Aunt Cass finally sighed, circling the bathrooms on the list. "Remind me again tonight to trim up your hair." She checked the clock again before walking to the front to open the doors.

"Right…" Hiro cringed, before sneaking an éclair from the case. He quickly inspected the set-up of the coffee machine and the equipment used for making cappuccinos and lattes, before making a syrupy sweet, foamy concoction of his own design for himself. He picked his white tablet up from the counter to show Aunt Cass when she came back.

"Can you get these puzzle mats?" Hiro pointed to the web picture of some big square red and blue mats he found on a wholesale martial arts site. Normally, he was able to purchase these things himself if they had the option for him to use his BuyBuddy account. But this one didn't, and it was the only company that had these kind of floor mats.

"Puzzle mats?" his aunt raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Gonna turn the garage into a mini dojo." He took another bite out of the pastry.

Sometimes his wild imagination produced ideas that weren't always the best. She set the tablet down on the counter, looking at him. "…why?"

"It's just for the guys from the Nerd Lab, for our superhero training." Hiro reasoned. "You can take it out of what you were going to pay me this week."

Aunt Cass sighed. "Hold that thought." She recognized a few people she knew coming inside the cafe, and wanted to greet them for their orders.

Hiro overheard what they wanted, and went ahead to make the coffee drinks accordingly. While he was not fond of manning the cashier, or waiting in tables (tasks that Tadashi had gladly accepted), Hiro prided himself in at least maintaining and operating the coffee and drink machines (when he became considerably old enough to be seen operating them).

Aunt Cass thanked him with some surprise after she noticed that he took it upon himself to make the coffee for her. Why it was so significant was that it was the first time since they lost Tadashi that he had made this kind of effort again. She decided it was the amount of sympathy many of her customers had been giving them the first couple of weeks after the accident that had affected Hiro to the point he no longer wanted to come down. Aunt Cass also knew he had been becoming more and more withdrawn during his time at high school, only to later just be caught up for many long hours in his own projects in the garage, by himself. And then, no longer having his brother's support anymore was the straw that broke the camel's back, for both of them, really.

Even though Cass still did not feel comfortable with the danger level involved with this new superhero team Hiro was part of, the positive influence it had on him was earth shattering. He was acting more and more like himself again, something she had realized she was truly missing.

She caught her nephew by the arm as he was preparing to leave. "Hey, I'll get the puzzle mats for you, and you don't have to pay. Okay, sweetie? Just send me the link."

Hiro just gasped in surprise. "Thank you, Aunt Cass!" He made sure to hung her tight before leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sad, but also happy, that this set of the story is also over. Yes, this fic came to me just because I wanted to explore just how Hiro got from one point to another from the scenarios at the end of the movie. I did twist a few details to make this fic more fun, but I hope you liked this alternate ending!
> 
> Also a nod to my other favorite robot and boy movie, The Iron Giant. I just had to make some parallels to that, here.
> 
> The story is not over though! It continues from here with other random instances based off the drawings during the movie's end credits, and just my own wacky ideas. Check them out! The sequel to this is "Indomitable Force" (currently still at FF.net, until I set it up in AO3 too), with other random one-shot fics that I have written in the last year. (Has it really been that long now? Wow...)


End file.
